L^visiua 1 

BT  1101  . B7  6 1916 
Brown,  William  Adams,  1865- 
1943. 

Is  Christianity  practicable 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


BOOKS  BY 

PROF.  WILLIAM  ADAMS  BROWN 

Published  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons 


Is  Christianity  Practicable?  12mo 

net  $1.25 

Modern  Theology  and  the  Preaching 

of  the  Gospel.  12mo  ....  net  $1.25 

The  Christian  Hope:  A Study  in  the 

Doctrine  of  Immortality.  12mo  net  $ .75 

Christian  Theology  in  Outline.  8vo 

net  $2.50 

The  Essence  of  Christianity.  8vo  net  $ .90 


IS  CHRISTIANITY 
PRACTICABLE? 


LECTURES  DELIVERED  IN  JAPAN 


WILLIAM  ADAMS  BROWN,  Ph.D.,  D.D. 

UNION  SEMINARY  LECTURER  ON  CHRISTIANITY 
IN  THE  TAR  EAST 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER’S  SONS 
1916 


Coptsight,  1916,  By 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER’S  SONS 

Published  November,  1916 


TO  THE  MEMORY 


OF 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  KNOX 

MT  COLLEAGUE  FOR  MANY  YEARS 
MY  PREDECESSOR  IN  THIS  LECTURESHIP 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/ischristianityprOObrow_O 


PREFACE 


On  the  25th  of  April,  1912,  there  died 
in  the  Severance  Hospital  at  Seoul  a 
man  who  was  bound  to  Japan  by  many 
ties.  For  fourteen  years  a missionary  in 
Tokyo,  George  William  Knox  continued 
after  his  return  to  the  United  States  to 
take  a lively  interest  in  things  Japanese. 
Through  his  books  and  articles  he  inter- 
preted the  spirit  of  the  Japanese  people 
to  his  fellow  countrymen  in  America,  and 
during  the  Russo-Japanese  War  he  was 
one  of  the  most  effective  advocates  of 
the  Japanese  cause.  It  was  always  his 
hope  to  revisit  the  country  where  his 
young  manhood  had  been  spent,  and  to 
share  with  his  friends  there,  young  and 
old,  the  insights  of  his  maturer  years. 
This  opportunity  came  to  him  in  1910, 
through  his  appointment  as  Union  Serni- 

1 vii  ] 


PREFACE 


nary  lecturer  on  Christianity  in  the  Far 
East,  but  his  hope  was  not  destined  to 
be  realized.  An  attack  of  pneumonia, 
contracted  while  he  was  in  China,  pros- 
trated him  just  as  he  was  on  the  point 
of  leaving  Korea  for  Japan.  From  this 
illness  he  never  recovered,  and  the  lec- 
tures which  all  who  knew  his  fitness  to 
deal  with  questions  of  comparative  reli- 
gion had  so  eagerly  anticipated  were 
never  delivered. 

Twice  before  in  the  person  of  its  be- 
loved president,  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert 
Hall,  Union  Seminary  had  sent  one  of 
its  faculty  to  the  Far  East  to  witness  to 
its  faith  in  the  supreme  importance  of 
the  cause  of  Christian  missions.  Dr. 
Knox  hoped  that  the  custom  might  be- 
come an  established  one.  He  repeatedly 
expressed  the  wish  that  others  of  his 
colleagues  might  follow  the  precedent 
set  by  Dr.  Hall  and  himself.  My  own 
appointment  as  lecturer  on  Christianity 
[ viii  ] 


PREFACE 


was  the  result  of  this  suggestion.  It 
seems  appropriate,  therefore,  that  this 
little  book,  which  owes  its  inspiration 
to  Dr.  Knox’s  example,  should  be  in- 
scribed to  his  memory. 

The  substance  of  the  chapters  that 
follow  was  delivered  in  the  form  of  lec- 
tures in  Kyoto,  Kobe,  Osaka,  and  Tokyo, 
in  response  to  an  invitation  from  the 
Federation  of  the  Japanese  Churches, 
and  from  the  Continuation  Committee 
of  Japan,  a -body  representing  all  the 
organized  Christian  agencies  in  that  coun- 
try. At  Kyoto  the  lectures  were  given 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Doshisha;  at 
Kobe,  of  the  Kwansei  Gakuin;  at  Tokyo, 
in  the  Ginza  Church,  under  the  auspices 
of  a committee  representing  the  different 
theological  schools  of  that  city.  Two 
of  the  lectures  were  repeated  at  Osaka 
before  an  audience  which  included  rep- 
resentatives both  of  the  missionary  body 
and  of  the  native  church. 


IX 


PREFACE 


The  subject  chosen  needs  no  justifica- 
tion. In  this  time  of  world  crisis  when 
existing  customs  are  everywhere  being 
challenged,  and  the  very  existence  of 
civilized  society  seems  threatened  by  the 
world  war,  it  is  essential  that  we  who  are 
Christians  should  raise  anew  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  nature  and  grounds  of 
our  faith,  and  should  ask  ourselves 
whether  the  enterprise  in  which  we  are 
engaged  is  a practicable  one,  worthy  of 
the  allegiance  of  sensible  men.  Espe- 
cially is  this  inquiry  appropriate  in  such 
a country  as  Japan,  where  Christianity  is 
a missionary  religion,  facing  older  faiths 
which  also  claim  universality.  Here  the 
grounds  on  which  Christians  base  their 
belief  in  the  validity  of  their  own  re- 
ligion have  peculiar  interest,  not  only  to 
the  Christian,  but  to  the  non-Christian. 
In  considering  these  grounds,  therefore, 
in  the  wider  connection  in  which  the 
war  has  placed  them,  we  are  making  a 

[x] 


PREFACE 


direct  contribution  to  the  cause  of  mis- 
sionary apologetic. 

But  in  truth  the  issue  here  raised 
transcends  all  local  or  national  limita- 
tions. The  question  whether  Christi- 
anity is  a practicable  religion  is  not 
simply  a missionary  question;  it  is  a 
human  question.  Indeed  we  may  say 
without  exaggeration  that  it  is  the  human 
question,  the  question  upon  our  answer 
to  which  our  hope  for  the  future  of  man- 
kind depends.  Is  force  to  be  the  ulti- 
mate word  in  human  affairs,  or  is  there 
something  higher  and  more  compelling — 
the  love  which  bears  and  believes  all 
things  and  which,  if  our  Christian  faith 
be  justified,  shall  never  fail?  If  these 
pages  can  do  anything  to  strengthen  this 
faith  where  it  has  been  weakened,  or  re- 
vive it  where  it  has  died,  they  will  have 
justified  their  purpose. 

A part  of  the  matter  incorporated  in 
the  present  volume  has  already  appeared 
[si] 


PREFACE 


in  print.  Since  the  war  broke  out  I 
have  had  opportunity  repeatedly  to  dis- 
cuss the  moral  issues  which  it  has  raised 
in  lectures,  addresses,  and  articles.  So 
far  as  this  material  was  available  for  my 
present  purpose  I have  not  hesitated  to 
make  use  of  it.  A part  of  the  first  chap- 
ter appeared  in  the  Hibherl  Journal  for 
January,  1916,  under  the  title,  “Is  Chris- 
tianity Practicable?’ 5 The  substance  of 
the  second  was  delivered  as  the  Drew 
Lecture  at  Hackney  College,  in  London, 
in  October,  19X4.1  A part  of  the  third 
appeared  in  Present  Day  Papers.2  A few 
paragraphs  have  also  been  used  from  a 
sermon  on  “The  Allies  of  Faith,”3  and 
an  address  on  “Worldwide  Peace.”4  I 

1 Published  in  the  Christian  World  Pulpit  for  October 
28,  1914,  and  the  Methodist  Quarterly  for  January, 
1915. 

2 “ Christianity  on  Trial,”  September,  1915;  also 
published  as  a tract  by  the  Church  Peace  Union. 

3 Oxford,  1914. 

4 “ Worldwide  Peace;  What  It  Is,  Why  We  Want  It, 
and  What  We  Can  Do  to  Bring  It  About,”  published 
in  the  Christian  Work,  April,  17,  24,  1915. 

[xii] 


PREFACE 


wish  here  to  express  my  indebtedness  to 
the  journals  in  which  these  extracts  first 
appeared  for  permission  to  reprint  them 
here. 

It  remains  to  acknowledge  my  indebt- 
edness to  the  friends  who  have  helped 
me  in  the  preparation  of  these  lectures. 
First  of  all  to  the  Board  of  Directors  of 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  to  whose 
action  I owe  my  appointment  as  Union 
Seminary  lecturer;  secondly,  to  the 
Federation  of  Churches  and  the  Con- 
tinuation Committee,  whose  invitation 
encouraged  me  to  accept  the  appoint- 
ment, and  especially  to  President  Ibuka, 
of  Tokyo,  and  Dr.  Dearing  of  Yoko- 
hama, who  arranged  my  programme  in 
Japan,  and  the  latter  of  whom  read  the 
lectures  in  manuscript;  most  of  all  to 
the  many  friends  in  Japan,  both  among 
the  missionaries  and  the  native  Chris- 
tians, whose  sympathetic  interest  in  the 
lectures  during  their  delivery,  and  whose 

[xiii] 


PREFACE 


request  for  their  preservation  in  more 
permanent  form  have  encouraged  me  to 
give  them  to  the  public.  To  Professor 
Kashiwai,  my  interpreter  in  Tokyo,  and 
a former  student  in  the  Union  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  I owe  a special  debt  of 
gratitude  for  his  accurate  and  pains- 
taking translation  of  the  lectures  into 
Japanese;  and  to  Dr.  Wain wright  of  the 
Christian  Literature  Society,  which  has 
undertaken  the  publication  of  the  lec- 
tures in  Japan,  my  thanks  are  due  for 
seeing  the  manuscript  through  the  press. 


CONTENTS 


PAG  B 

I.  The  World  Crisis  as  Challenge  and 

as  Opportunity 1 

The  Challenge  of  the  War  to  Christian  Faith 
— The  Issue  Defined.  Is  Christianity  So-  — 
cially  Practicable  ? — Attempts  to  Evade  the 
Issue — The  Principles  by  Which  It  Is  to 
Be  Met. 

II.  The  Christian  Interpretation  of  His- 
tory   48 

The  World  Crisis  in  the  Light  of  the  Christian 
Philosophy  of  History — History  as  God’s 
Training-School  of  Character — History  as 
God’s  Education  for  Brotherhood — History 
as  the  Meeting-Place  of  God  and  Man. 

in.  The  Christian  Programme  for  Human- 
ity   97 

The  Christian  Ideal  for  Society — The  Alterna- 
tives to  Christianity — The  Practicability  of  ’ 
the  Christian  Programme — -The  Resources 
Available  for  the  Christian  Cause. 

IV.  The  Duty  for  To-Morrow  ....  141 

Where  to  Begin— -The  Christian’s  Duty  to  His 
Neighborhood— -The  Christian’s  Duty  to 
His  Country — The  Christian’s  Attitude 
Toward  War. 

[xv  J 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


V.  What  the  Church  Can  Do  ....  191 

The  Opportunity  of  the  Church — The  Witness 
of  the  Church  to  Human  Brotherhood — 
Missions  as  an  Invitation  to  Spiritual  Ad- 
venture—The  Living  God  as  the  Guarantee 
of  Final  Success. 

Index 239 


[xvij 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  WORLD  CRISIS  AS  CHALLENGE 
AND  AS  OPPORTUNITY 

Two  friends  were  recently  conversing 
about  the  war.  “I  do  not  see  how  I 
can  go  on  living,”  said  one.  “It  seems 
as  if  I had  lost  God  out  of  my  world.” 
“Strange,”  answered  the  other,  “it 
seems  to  me  as  if  I had  just  found  Him.” 

The  conversation  is  typical.  Amid 
all  the  questions  which  the  war  has 
brought  to  the  surface — questions  eco- 
nomic, political,  racial — the  moral  ques- 
tion has  claimed  the  centre  of  attention. 
Appalling  as  has  been  the  loss  of  human 
lives,  colossal  as  has  been  the  destruc- 
tion of  capital,  men  have  been  conscious 
of  a danger  even  greater  for  the  life  of 
[ l I 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


the  spirit.  What  will  the  war  mean  for 
the  higher  life  of  man?  Are  we  on  the 
eve  of  a permanent  relapse  into  bar- 
barism, or  are  we  witnessing  the  birth 
throes  of  a new  and  higher  social  order? 

To  every  thoughtful  man  this  ques- 
tion is  of  interest,  but  to  the  Christian 
it  comes  home  with  peculiar  closeness. 
For  Christianity  in  all  its  forms  believes 
in  a moral  government  of  God  in  which 
all  nations  and  races  are  included,  and 
judges  all  experience,  social  and  indi- 
vidual alike,  in  its  bearing  upon  this 
supreme  issue.  It  is  not  strange  then 
that  in  every  country  of  Christendom, 
those  which  are  at  war  and  those  which 
are  participants  only  by  their  sympathy, 
men  are  asking  themselves  what  bearing 
the  events  we  are  witnessing  will  have 
upon  the  religion  to  which  they  own 
allegiance.  How  far  has  the  Christian 
claim  been  confirmed,  how  far  disproved, 
by  the  war?  Of  the  two  judgments 
[2] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

quoted  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter, 
tested  by  the  Christian  standard,  which 
has  most  evidence  on  its  side? 

In  the  pages  that  follow  I propose  to 
raise,  and  so  far  as  I can,  to  answer  this 
question.  I wish  to  ask  what  lessons 
we  may  learn  from  the  present  crisis  as 
to  the  nature  and  validity  of  Christian 
faith,  and  what  contribution  Christians 
can  make  to  the  tasks  of  spiritual  re- 
construction which  must  be  undertaken 
after  the  war  is  over? 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  of 
the  last  two  years  has  been  their  revela- 
tion of  the  failure  of  the  churches  to  ex- 
ercise any  controlling  influence  upon  the 
national  policy  of  the  so-called  Christian 
nations.  In  an  age  when  unity  was  the 
dominant  note  of  Christian  preaching; 
when  the  barriers  that  divided  the  de- 
nominations, in  sympathy  if  not  in  ac- 
tion, were  everywhere  being  overpassed; 
when  the  Christian  consciousness  of 

[3] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

world  responsibility  and  world  oppor- 
tunity had  voiced  itself  in  such  gather- 
ings as  the  Edinburgh  Conference,  and 
such  calls  as  that  of  the  Conference  on 
Faith  and  Order;  when  in  every  coun- 
try of  Christendom  the  older  individu- 
alistic conception  of  Christianity  was 
giving  place  to  one  more  conscious  of 
its  social  responsibility,  and  more  sen- 
sitive to  the  appeals  of  universal  need, 
we  might  have  expected  that  when  the 
issue  of  war  or  peace  had  to  be  faced, 
the  Christian  conscience  would  have 
been  alert  enough,  and  the  protests  of 
the  churches  sufficiently  powerful  and 
effective  to  have  called  a halt  in  time. 
Whatever  may  have  been  true  of  other 
ages  and  of  men  of  other  faiths,  in  this 
age  at  least,  and  among  nations  calling 
themselves  Christian,  war  on  such  a 
scale  should  have  been  impossible. 

But  as  a matter  of  fact  this  expectation 
has  been  disappointed.  Not  only  were 
[4  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

the  churches  powerless  to  prevent  the 
war*  but  they  made  no  serious  attempt 
to  do  so.  And  now  that  the  war  has 
come,  and  the  nations  on  either  side  are 
committed  to  the  contest,  the  Chris- 
tians within  each  are  found  heart  and 
soul  in  support  of  their  respective  govern- 
ments, not  only  in  the  physical  struggle 
in  which  they  are  engaged,  but  what  is 
more  significant,  in  their  interpretation 
of  the  moral  issues  at  stake.  With  all 
recognition  of  the  unselfishness  of  pur- 
pose that  has  animated  Christians  as 
individuals,  it  must  yet  be  confessed 
that  with  reference  to  international  re- 
lations the  Christian  sentiment  of  the 
world  has  failed  to  make  itself  felt 
in  this  supreme  crisis  in  any  unified 
and  effective  way.  Individual  Christians 
have  said  and  done  many  noble  and  un- 
selfish things.  The  church  as  a whole 
has  shown  no  consciousness  of  indepen- 
dent responsibility.  It  has  committed 
15] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


itself  to  no  definite  constructive  pro- 
gramme. 

In  this,  to  be  sure,  Christians  do  not 
stand  alone.  What  is  true  of  the  church 
is  true  of  every  one  of  the  idealistic 
agencies  in  whose  activity  we  were  wont 
to  take  pride.  When  put  to  the  su- 
preme test,  science  and  art,  literature 
and  law  have  proved  as  impotent  as  re- 
ligion. The  Palace  of  The  Hague  is  de- 
serted. Where  two  years  ago  we  found 
business  men  investing  their  capital  with 
equal  impartiality  in  Russia  and  Austria, 
Germany  and  England,  to-day  we  see 
the  nations  organizing  their  economic 
resources  on  lines  determined  by  the 
present  conflict,  and  what  is  more  men- 
acing, promising  themselves  the  perpetu- 
ation of  this  divisive  policy  after  the 
war  is  over.  Socialism,  the  one  political 
creed  already  definitely  committed  to  an 
international  programme,  has  seen  its 
organization  disrupted  by  the  strain  of 
[ 6 ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

opposing  patriotisms,  and  its  members, 
with  a heavy  heart,  abandoning  their 
dream  of  the  world  war  against  capital- 
istic oppression  for  the  more  pressing,  if 
repugnant,  task  of  killing  their  brother 
Socialists  who,  like  themselves  but  in 
opposing  ranks,  have  obeyed  their  coun- 
try’s summons  to  arm  in  her  defense. 
Even  science,  the  most  objective  and  un- 
impassioned of  all  human  interests,  has 
caught  the  prevailing  contagion,  and, 
abandoning  all  pretense  of  impartiality, 
committed  itself  in  the  persons  of  its 
most  distinguished  representatives  to  a 
propaganda  of  partisanship. 

What  we  seem  to  see  therefore  is  the 
bankruptcy  of  internationalism  in  all  its 
forms.  But  of  all  these  failures,  signal 
and  discouraging  as  they  are,  none  is 
more  surprising,  and  none  more  dis- 
heartening, than  that  of  the  Christian 
church.  For  no  other  organization  rep- 
resents in  a more  unqualified  way  the 

[ 7 ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

higher  interests  of  mankind,  and  none  is 
more  definitely  committed  to  the  ideal  of 
brotherhood,  of  which  war  is  the  ex- 
plicit denial.  It  becomes  incumbent, 
therefore,  upon  us  who  call  ourselves 
Christians,  to  inquire  into  the  reason 
for  this  failure;  to  discover  whether  it 
is  irremediable,  and  if  not  to  learn  what 
we  can  do  to  make  its  recurrence  in  the 
future  impossible. 

The  question  thus  raised  is  not  an 
academic  one.  It  is  not  one  which  has 
to  do  simply  with  our  private  satisfac- 
tion and  reassurance  in  faith,  important 
as  these  may  be.  It  is  forced  upon  us 
by  the  social  situation.  For  we  are  not 
simply  thinkers,  but  actors.  When  peace 
comes,  whether  it  be  sooner  or  later,  and 
the  work  of  reconstruction  has  to  be 
faced,  we  shall  have  to  do  our  part  in 
determining  the  policies  to  be  adopted, 
and  the  methods  to  be  followed  in  realiz- 
ing them.  And  what  we  do  will  be  de- 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

termined  by  what  we  believe.  Shall  we 
yield  to  the  prevailing  scepticism,  and 
abandon  our  hope  of  the  realization  of  the 
Christian  ideal  of  brotherhood  on  earth? 
Shall  we  seek  compensation  for  Chris- 
tianity’s failure  here  in  the  millenarian’s 
dream  of  a triumph  of  righteousness  in 
some  other  world  than  ours,  or  in  the 
mystic  peace  which  follows  the  abandon- 
ment of  all  earthly  ideals  for  the  higher 
bliss  of  communion  with  the  ineffable 
God?  Or,  is  the  fault  not  in  our  ideal, 
but  in  ourselves,  a fault  which  may  be 
remedied  if  we  do  our  part,  and  which 
in  fact  it  is  our  most  pressing  duty,  as 
it  is  our  supreme  privilege,  to  remedy  ? 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  im- 
portance of  this  question.  When  the 
initial  shock  of  the  war  was  over  and 
men  awoke  from  the  numbness  of  their 
first  surprise  to  face  the  problem  of  ad- 
justment to  the  new  and  strange  world 
in  which  they  found  themselves,  the 
[9] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

first  effect  was  a certain  exhilaration  of 
spirit.  The  very  magnitude  of  the  crisis 
had  in  it  something  inspiring,  almost  en- 
nobling. Small  concerns  were  forgotten, 
petty  interests  no  longer  attracted.  Men 
were  solemnized,  uplifted,  carried  out  of 
themselves  by  the  enthusiasm  of  a great 
loyalty.  Religious  men  especially  were 
quick  to  respond  to  the  ideal  elements  in 
the  situation.  In  their  country’s  appeal 
to  sacrifice  and  devotion  Christians  found 
a natural  outlet  for  the  instinct  of  con- 
secration which  had  been  bred  in  them 
by  their  religion.  They  did  not  doubt 
that  in  serving  the  nation’s  cause  they 
were  at  the  same  time  promoting  God’s 
kingdom  on  the  earth. 

But  as  time  went  on  this  early  enthu- 
siasm gave  place  to  a different  mood. 
As  the  magnitude  of  the  struggle  has 
become  more  apparent,  and  its  cost  not 
only  in  human  life  but  in  faith  and 
hope  and  love,  it  has  become  less  easy 
[ 10  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


to  maintain  the  optimism  which  char- 
acterized the  early  days  of  the  war. 
Face  to  face  with  the  grim  reality  of 
modem  warfare,  with  its  ruthless  bru- 
tality and  shameless  cynicism,  the  ideals 
of  peace  which  we  associate  with  Chris- 
tianity seem  unreal  and  remote.  What 
had  at  first  been  regarded  as  unthinka- 
ble has  come  to  be  taken  as  a matter  of 
course;  and  even  those  Christians  who 
still  cherish  the  ideal  of  world  brother- 
hood and  peace  despair  of  finding  any 
sphere  in  which  it  can  be  made  prac- 
tically operative  for  generations  to  come. 
Such  a situation  is  full  of  danger,  for  a 
faith  which  cannot  find  appropriate  ex- 
pression in  action  is  held  by  a precarious 
tenure.  From  every  point  of  view,  there- 
fore, the  inquiry  which  is  here  proposed 
becomes  of  commanding  importance. 

What  then  is  the  issue  which  the  war 
has  raised  for  Christian  faith?  It  is  in 
[ ll  1 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


briefest  statement  whether  Christianity  is 
a practicable  religion  for  society  as  well 
as  for  the  individuals  who  compose  it? 

There  are  two  different  angles  from 
which  the  question  as  to  the  practica- 
bility of  the  Christian  religion  may  be 
approached.  It  may  be  approached  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  individual,  or  it 
may  be  approached  from  the  point  of 
view  of  man’s  social  relations.  We  may 
ask  how  far  Christianity  is  a practicable 
religion  for  the  individual  man  and 
woman;  whether  it  offers  a reasonable 
creed,  a satisfying  object  of  worship,  a 
worthy  ideal  of  conduct,  and  motives 
adequate  to  insure  its  realization;  or 
we  may  ask  whether  Christianity  is  so- 
cially practicable,  a religion  which  in 
such  a world  as  this,  with  its  complex 
relationships,  economic,  social,  and  po- 
litical, we  may  reasonably  expect  to 
become  the  accepted  standard  for  the 
common  faith  and  life  of  man. 

[12] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

It  makes  a great  difference  in  which 
of  these  two  senses  we  understand  our 
question.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
individual,  few  would  be  found  to  deny 
the  practicability  of  Christianity,  for  the 
evidence  to  the  contrary  is  accessible 
on  every  hand.  There  are  men  and 
women  all  the  world  over  who  believe 
in  the  Christian  God,  accept  the  Chris- 
tian standard,  and  realize  that  standard 
in  their  own  personal  conduct  to  a re- 
markable degree.  They  are  unselfish, 
trustful,  brotherly,  forgiving,  hopeful, 
pure.  They  face  calamity  with  courage, 
sin  with  repentance,  opportunity  with 
consecration,  and  persecution  with  self- 
control.  They  may  be  mistaken  in  their 
belief,  and  their  hope  may  be  destined 
to  disappointment,  but  no  one  can  deny 
that,  so  far  as  their  personal  experience 
is  concerned,  Christianity  has  proved  and 
is  still  proving  itself  not  only  a practica- 
ble, but  a satisfying  and  ennobling  religion. 

[ 13  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

For  men  of  this  type  the  war  has  in- 
troduced no  essentially  new  element  into 
their  religious  experience.  It  has  im- 
mensely deepened  and  intensified  it.  It 
has  provided  a new  challenge  for  faith,  a 
new  opportunity  for  service,  but  it  has 
not  made  it  appreciably  harder  to  be- 
lieve in  God.  Indeed,  for  many  it  has 
become  far  easier,  for  the  very  shattering 
of  earthly  ideals  and  the  new  revelation 
of  the  transitoriness  of  material  posses- 
sions has  served  to  set  in  clearer  per- 
spective the  unseen  reality,  and  removed, 
as  it  were,  a veil  which  seemed  to  hang 
between  them  and  God.  For  many  it 
has  meant  a readjustment  of  standards 
and  a reinforcement  of  the  tendency 
present  in  every  religion  which,  like 
Christianity,  makes  much  of  personality, 
to  postpone  the  consummation  from  this 
life  to  another.  Where  so  many  of  the 
young  and  the  strong  have  been  cut  off 
in  the  flower  of  their  youth,  it  cannot  but 
[ 14  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

be  that  thought  should  turn  to  the  life 
after  death  for  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lems that  baffle  us  here.  But  this,  too, 
is  not  a new  faith,  only  the  re-emphasis 
in  a new  setting  of  what  has  been  pres- 
ent in  Christianity  from  the  first. 

But  with  the  other  phase  of  the  ques- 
tion it  is  different.  When  we  ask  whether 
Christianity  is  socially  practicable,  we 
ask  whether  the  standards  which  have 
been  accepted  and  in  a measure  realized 
by  selected  individuals  here  and  there, 
are  valid  for  the  race  as  a whole; 
whether  nations  and  the  rival  classes 
within  each  nation,  whose  dealings  one 
with  another  are  now  conducted  on  purely 
selfish  principles,  may  be  expected  to 
abandon  their  present  rivalry  in  favor  of 
the  more  generous  and  inclusive  meth- 
ods advocated  by  Christ. 

For  such  a question  the  war  is  of  mo- 
mentous significance.  For  war  in  the 
boldness  of  its  affirmation  of  the  su- 
[ 15  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

premacy  of  self-interest  as  between  so- 
cial groups  is,  in  its  essence,  the  denial 
of  Christianity.  If  war,  and  what  war 
means,  is  a permanent  social  necessity, 
then  Christianity  in  the  sense  in  which 
we  are  interested  in  it  here  is  socially 
impracticable,  and  our  question  must  be 
answered  in  the  negative. 

There  are  many  thoughtful  people  who 
believe  that  this  is  the  case.  Regretfully 
but  none  the  less  explicitly,  and  with  full 
consciousness  of  the  significance  of  their 
action,  they  have  abandoned  any  hope 
that  the  principles  and  ideals  which  in- 
spire the  life  of  the  best  Christians  can 
ever  be  made  dominant  in  the  life  of 
society  as  a whole.  They  look  upon  the 
interpretation  of  Christianity  which  has 
been  so  much  in  evidence  in  the  last  gen- 
eration as  a spirit  of  brotherhood  and 
tolerance  which  was  gradually  to  leaven 
society  as  a whole — which,  indeed,  was 
actually  leavening  it  so  rapidly  and  so 
[ 16  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


successfully  as  to  make  war  in  any  such 
sense,  and  on  any  such  scale  as  it  had 
been  known  in  the  past,  morally  impos- 
sible— they  look,  I repeat,  upon  such  a 
conception  as  this,  a conception  made 
familiar  to  us  by  the  theology  of  the 
last  thirty  years,  as  a delusion,  beau- 
tiful, if  you  will,  as  any  dream  of  an 
ideal  social  state  is  beautiful,  but  wholly 
unrelated  to  the  matter-of-fact  world  in 
which  we  live,  and  full  of  danger,  as  all 
unreality  is  dangerous  which  blinds  men’s 
eyes  to  the  perils  of  the  existing  situation, 
and  leaves  them  unprepared  to  meet  it. 

And  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is 
much  to  be  said  in  support  of  this  view. 
Tested  by  each  one  of  its  cardinal  prin- 
ciples, Christianity  seems  hopelessly  to 
have  broken  down.  Whatever  else  one 
may  or  may  not  include  in  Christianity, 
this  at  least  it  has  meant  to  those  who 
have  accepted  it  in  the  past;  the  father- 
hood of  God,  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
[ 17  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

redemption  through  Christ,  the  leader- 
ship of  the  church.  And  yet  how  un- 
real and  far  away  seems  each  of  these 
when  measured  by  the  grim  realities  of 
the  present ! How  can  one  speak  of  the 
fatherhood  of  God  in  any  universal  and 
all-embracing  sense  in  the  light  of  the 
terrible  calamities  which  have  fallen  upon 
so  many  innocent  sufferers  all  over  the 
round  world  2 How  can  one  believe  in 
the  goodness  of  God  when  one  contem- 
plates this  unexampled  harvest  of  agony, 
of  bitterness,  and  of  death?  How  the 
whole  dilemma  that  in  every  age  has 
haunted  the  imagination  of  man,  the  di- 
lemma: either  God  would  not,  and  then 
He  is  not  good,  or  He  could  not,  and 
then  He  is  not  in  control— how  this 
dilemma  has  been  intensified  until  it 
seems  as  if  it  could  not  be  evaded.  For 
the  individual  here  and  there,  the  man 
of  strong  faith  and  heroic  courage,  it 
may  be  possible  now  as  in  the  past  to 
[18] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

fight  one’s  way  through  the  storms  of 
doubt  up  into  the  clear  skies  of  faith, 
but  for  the  world  at  large,  surely  if  what 
we  see  is  to  be  the  measure  of  the  future, 
it  is  vain  to  talk  of  the  fatherhood  of 
God  with  any  expectation  of  being  be- 
lieved. 

The  case  is  still  more  disheartening 
when  we  pass  to  the  second  great  article 
of  the  Christian  faith,  the  brotherhood 
of  man.  For  what  we  seem  to  see  to-day 
is  a colossal  denial  on  the  part  of  that 
portion  of  the  human  race  which  has  been 
longest  under  the  influence  of  Christ, 
and  which  alone  definitely  calls  itself 
Christian,  of  this  central  and  cardinal 
conviction.  Whatever  else  Christianity 
may  or  may  not  be,  it  is  an  international 
religion.  It  began  as  a protest  against 
the  doctrine  which  identified  the  King- 
dom of  God  with  any  single  nation.  It 
broke  the  barrier  between  Greek  and 
Jew,  and  proclaimed  the  coming  of  a 
[ 19  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

new  social  order  which  should  include 
both.  But  now  we  see  the  revival  in 
the  most  brutal  form  of  the  very  barriers 
which  it  was  the  mission  of  Christ  to 
break  down.  The  outstanding  factor  in 
the  situation  is  the  factor  of  race;  the 
final  unit,  it  is  declared  over  and  over 
again,  must  be  the  nation.  The  Chris- 
tian claim  to  reach  beyond  the  individual 
life  and  prescribe  laws  for  the  state  is 
explicitly  repudiated,  not  simply  by  poli- 
ticians and  by  statesmen,  but  by  Chris- 
tian theologians  who  tell  us  that  Chris- 
tianity has  to  do  purely  with  the  fife  of 
the  individual,  that  the  unselfishness 
which  it  prescribes  and  the  sacrifices 
which  it  inculcates  are  valid  only  for 
private  persons  within  the  limits  of  the 
present  life.  As  for  the  state  itself,  that, 
we  are  told,  is  the  ultimate  unit,  know- 
ing no  law  but  that  of  its  own  existence, 
and  recognizing  no  authority,  human  or 
divine,  which  has  the  right  to  ask  of  it 
[ 20  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

the  self-abnegation  which  is  the  supreme 
law  of  the  individual  Christian. 

Nor  is  it  otherwise  with  the  third 
great  Christian  tenet,  that  of  redemp- 
tion through  Christ.  Characteristic  of 
Christianity  as  an  individual  experience 
is  the  consciousness  of  the  forgiveness 
of  sins,  humility  in  the  presence  of  the 
holy  God,  penitence  because  of  the  mem- 
ory of  past  wrong-doing,  sympathy  with 
others  who  are  involved  in  the  same 
legacy  of  sin  and  are  heirs  to  the  same 
blessing  of  redemption.  The  willingness 
to  forgive  as  one  has  been  forgiven,  to 
bear  and  to  forbear,  to  think  no  evil, 
to  trust  where  one  cannot  see— -all  these 
qualities  so  characteristic  of  the  finest 
Christian  experience — where  shall  we  look 
for  them  to-day  in  this  world  of  sus- 
picion, enmity,  and  hate?  How  can  we 
believe  in  the  social  practicability  of 
the  Christian  religion  when  we  find  each 
of  the  warring  nations  repudiating  all 
[21  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

blame  from  itself  and  attributing  all  re- 
sponsibility for  this  world  tragedy  to  its 
opponents?  What  concord  is  there  be- 
tween the  spirit  of  Christ  and  the  pride 
and  self-satisfaction  that  are  the  domi- 
nant notes  of  the  age  in  which  we  live? 

And  if  it  be  said  that  these  are  but 
local  and  transitory  symptoms,  the  evi- 
dence of  a world-spirit  which  for  the 
moment  has  slipped  its  leash  and  run 
wild  without  control;  that  within  or- 
ganized Christianity  at  least  we  may 
count  on  a protest  against  these  unchris- 
tian tendencies  and  the  reaffirmation  in 
the  face  of  a challenging  world  of  the 
great  ideals  and  principles  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking — we  face  this  further 
and  most  discouraging  fact  of  the  all 
but  complete  abnegation  of  leadership 
on  the  part  of  the  Christian  church.  In 
every  country  that  is  now  at  war  we  find 
the  forces  of  organized  religion  mobil- 
ized with  army  and  navy  in  defense  of 
[ 22  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


the  particular  contention  of  the  state 
in  question.  The  consciousness  of  world 
citizenship  so  characteristic  of  the 
church  of  Christ  in  its  great  days  is  for 
the  moment  eclipsed,  and  one  wonders 
whether  it  will  ever  be  possible  to  revive 
it. 


It  may  be  said— it  will  no  doubt  be 
said-— that  in  principle  there  is  nothing 
new  in  what  we  see.  In  one  form  or 
another  the  problem  of  evil  has  always 
been  with  us.  But  there  is  something  in 
the  size  of  the  present  crisis  that  stag- 
gers the  imagination,  something  which 
forces  home  the  issue  even  upon  those 
comfortable  and  sheltered  lives  which 
have  hitherto  managed  to  elude  it;  while 
for  those  who  are  already  hostile  to  Chris- 
tianity it  seems  as  if  here  at  last  a weapon 
had  been  thrust  into  their  hands  to  drive 
home  their  case  with  a logic  which  could 
not  be  resisted. 


1 23  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

There  are  some  Christians  indeed  who 
try  to  evade  the  difficulty  by  denying 
the  relevancy  of  Christianity  to  the  pres- 
ent life,  or  at  least  to  those  phases  of 
human  life  which  concern  the  relations 
of  men  in  society.  According  to  their 
view  Christianity  is  purely  a religion  of 
individual  salvation.  It  is  concerned 
with  the  soul  of  man,  not  with  his  body, 
and  with  this  life  simply  as  a preparation 
for  that  which  is  to  come.  To  those 
who  hold  such  a view  there  is  nothing 
surprising  in  the  present  situation.  It 
involves  no  failure  of  Christianity,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  Christianity  has 
never  proposed  to  be  a religion  for  this 
world.  Not  transformation,  they  insist, 
but  escape,  is  the  Christian  message; 
not  leadership  but  protest  the  true  func- 
tion of  the  church. 

There  are  two  forms  which  this  other- 
worldly Christianity  may  take.  One  is 
premillenarianism.  This  abandons  the 
[ 24  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


present  world  to  the  power  of  evil.  It 
expects  no  improvement  in  society  until 
the  great  cataclysm  at  the  end  of  the 
age  when  Christ  is  to  return  in  person 
to  establish  his  kingdom.  In  the  mean- 
time it  confines  the  duty  of  the  church 
to  preaching  repentance  to  individuals, 
and  warning  them  to  be  ready  to  wel- 
come their  Lord  when  he  comes. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  this 
view  arose.  During  the  first  decades 
of  Christianity  no  one  anticipated  the 
long  duration  of  human  history.  The 
disciples  believed  that  Christ  would  come 
again  within  the  lifetime  of  men  then 
living  in  order  to  establish  his  kingdom 
upon  earth  and  to  realize  the  social 
ideals  of  justice,  brotherhood,  and  love. 
And  when  this  expectation  was  disap- 
pointed and  men  faced  the  prospect  of 
a period  of  waiting  indefinitely  long, 
the  old  habits  of  thought  still  persisted 
and  the  social  consummation  unattain- 
[25] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

able,  or  at  least  unrealized  here,  was 
awaited  in  the  undiscovered  country 
that  lay  beyond  death.  In  the  mean- 
time the  energies  of  Christians  found 
sufficient  outlet  in  the  preparation  of  the 
individual  for  the  life  after  death,  and 
the  winning  of  new  candidates  for  the 
citizenship  of  the  future  kingdom. 

So  there  grew  up  a conception  of  Chris- 
tianity which,  while  it  still  cherished  the 
social  ideal,  and  phrased  its  faith  in 
terms  of  social  fellowship,  was  yet  in 
principle  largely  self-centred  and  indi- 
vidualistic. 

I would  speak  with  the  greatest  re- 
spect of  those  who  hold  the  premillena- 
rian  view.  In  an  age  which  is  tempted  to 
compromise  for  the  sake  of  immediate 
success  they  have  held  aloft  the  ideal  of 
personal  purity  and  of  unswerving  loyalty. 
To  the  sorrowful  spirit  they  have  offered 
comfort;  to  the  sinful,  hope,  and  to 
those  who  despair  of  any  outcome  of 
[26] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


life  here  adequate  to  the  demand  of  the 
Christian  ideal,  they  promise  in  another 
world  a new  sphere  of  activity,  and  a 
better  guarantee  of  success. 

But  for  many  Christians,  and  these 
not  the  least  sincere,  such  a restriction 
of  the  sphere  of  Christianity  presents 
difficulties.  They  believe  with  all  their 
might  in  the  gospel  of  individual  salva- 
tion, but  they  believe,  too,  that  Christ 
has  a message  for  society  as  well  which 
cannot  be  neglected  with  impunity. 
They  remember  how  much  of  the  Bible 
is  concerned  with  questions  of  social 
righteousness,  and  feel  that  such  a situa- 
tion as  faces  us  in  Europe  to-day  would, 
if  accepted  as  permanent  and  normal, 
be  in  effect  a denial  of  the  gospel.  To 
hold  fast  the  Christian  ideal  for  society, 
while  at  the  same  time  denying  that  it 
is  capable  of  realization  in  the  present 
world  seems  to  involve  one  in  a funda- 
mental contradiction  which,  if  clearly 
[ 27  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


perceived,  must  paralyze  the  will.  It 
gives  us  an  ideal  which  we  can  do  noth- 
ing to  realize,  and  in  the  midst  of  events 
which  are  shaking  the  world  to  its  foun- 
dations, assigns  us  the  position  of  irre- 
sponsible spectators. 

The  other  form  of  other-worldly  Chris- 
tianity is  mysticism.  This  is  even  more 
radically  antisocial.1  It  regards  our  re- 
lation to  our  fellow  men  in  any  possible 
world  as  of  only  temporary  and  transi- 
tory significance.  To  the  mystic  God  is 
the  only  true  reality,  and  God  can  brook 
no  rival  in  the  allegiance  of  the  soul. 
From  the  vain  quest  of  social  betterment 
with  its  divided  allegiance,  from  the  false 

1 It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  I use  mysticism 
in  this  connection  in  a technical  sense  to  denote  a 
type  of  religion  which  concentrates  attention  upon  the 
relation  between  the  individual  soul  and  God,  and  re- 
gards all  other  factors  as  irrelevant  if  not  positively 
disturbing.  The  term  is  often  used  in  a wider  sense, 
as  a synonym  of  vital  as  distinct  from  traditional  re- 
ligion, and  those  are  called  mystics  who  unite  with 
ethical  devotion  to  their  fellow  men  a vivid  sense  of  the 
presence  and  fellowship  of  God.  It  is  with  mysticism 
in  the  former  sense  only  that  we  are  concerned  here. 

[28] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


hope  of  human  progress  with  its  inevita- 
ble disappointment,  he  would  recall  us 
to  the  inner  world  where  alone  God  is 
to  be  found. 

When  I was  in  England  during  the 
early  months  of  the  war  I remember 
hearing  a distinguished  writer,  herself  a 
mystic,  give  a lecture  on  mysticism  and 
the  war.  She  denied  that  there  was  any- 
thing in  the  present  situation  which 
could  disturb  the  calm  of  the  mystic’s 
life  with  God,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
this  life  was  lived  on  a level  where  all 
such  questions  as  were  involved  in  the 
present  struggle  in  Europe  were  irrel- 
evant. All  the  passion  and  agony,  the 
struggle  and  rivalry  which  fill  the  days 
and  nights  of  the  contestants  at  the 
front  belong  to  the  region  of  mundane 
interest,  from  which  it  is  the  function 
of  religion  to  free  the  soul.  In  the  un- 
troubled peace  which  God  gives  to  his 
saints  they  have  no  place. 

[ 29  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

It  is  not  my  purpose  here  to  consider 
the  relation  of  mysticism  to  Christianity 
or  to  debate  the  question  how  far  the 
Christian  religion  may  rightly  be  called 
mystical.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  say 
that,  to  the  extent  to  which  the  mystic’s 
definition  of  Christianity  is  accepted  as 
correct,  it  loses  the  marks  which  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  contemplative  re- 
ligions of  the  East,  and  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  is  emptied  of  its  natural  and 
hitherto  all  but  universally  accepted 
meaning.  When  Jesus  spoke  of  God  as 
a Father,  he  used  words  borrowed  from 
the  most  familiar  of  social  relationships, 
and  committed  his  disciples  to  an  ideal 
incapable  of  description  in  terms  of 
purely  individualistic  and  self-centred 
religion. 

There  are  two  reasons  why  it  is  difficult 
to  be  satisfied  either  with  the  premille- 
narian  or  the  mystic  creed.  The  first  is 
psychological,  growing  out  of  the  per- 
[30] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

sonal  religious  experience;  the  second, 
historical,  based  upon  observation  of  the 
experience  of  others. 

The  first  reason  why  we  find  it  hard 
to  be  satisfied  with  a purely  individual- 
istic religion  is  that  we  know  that  we 
ourselves  are  more  than  individuals.  The 
more  we  try  to  be  our  own  best  selves, 
the  more  earnest  we  make  with  the  Chris- 
tian ideal  of  personal  consecration  and 
self-sacrifice,  the  more,  in  short,  we  try 
to  do  the  things  that  individualistic 
Christianity  requires  of  us,  the  more  in- 
evitably we  find  ourselves  led  beyond 
the  sphere  of  individual  interest  to  the 
common  aspirations,  ideals,  and  endeav- 
ors which  make  up  the  life  of  men  in 
society. 

The  second  reason  is  historical.  As 
we  retrace  the  story  of  mankind  in  the 
past  and  ask  ourselves  who  are  the 
heroes  whom  we  most  admire,  and  the 
benefactors  in  whose  achievements  we 
[31  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

take  the  most  pride,  we  find  they  are 
those  who  have  given  themselves  with 
the  most  complete  devotion  to  the  ser- 
vice of  their  fellows,  and  to  whose  sacri- 
fices, however  fruitless  at  the  time  they 
may  have  seemed,  we  can  trace  some  for- 
ward step  in  the  upward  march  of  hu- 
manity. Unless  we  are  to  renounce  all 
hope  of  human  progress  and,  like  the 
Eastern  sage  of  whom  Kipling  writes  in 
“Kim,”  reduce  history  to  a series  of 
cycles  in  which  generation  after  genera- 
tion retraces  with  unseeing  eye  the  path- 
way already  traversed  by  its  predeces- 
sors, we  must  believe  that  God  has  some 
purpose  in  the  movements  of  nations  as 
well  as  of  individuals,  some  satisfying 
goal  to  which,  by  however  arduous  and 
painful  a path,  he  is  leading  the  peoples. 

Such,  at  least,  is  the  conviction  which 
has  inspired  the  present  inquiry.  I am 
writing  for  those  who,  with  me,  believe 
that  Christianity  has  a social  message, 
[32  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


and  that  Christians  have  a responsibility 
to  their  neighborhood,  and  to  the  state, 
as  well  as  to  their  own  souls  before  God. 
To  all  who  hold  this  faith  the  war  is  at 
once  a challenge  and  an  opportunity: 
a challenge  to  justify  their  faith  against 
attack,  an  opportunity  to  learn  lessons 
which  may  prevent  similar  failures  in  the 
future. 

It  is  so  in  every  great  crisis.  It  is  at 
once  test  and  teacher.  We  learn  by 
what  we  experience,  and  no  contact 
with  opposing  forces,  whether  in  the 
world  of  thought  or  of  action,  leaves  us 
just  where  we  were  before.  The  his- 
tory of  the  Christian  religion  is  not  sim- 
ply the  story  of  the  reaffirmation  from 
age  to  age  of  a changeless  deposit  of 
faith;  it  is  the  record  of  a growing  in- 
sight into  the  significance  of  principles 
whose  full  meaning  can  be  only  gradu- 
ally apprehended  in  the  light  of  advanc- 
ing experience. 


[33] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


So  It  must  be  in  the  present  crisis.  It 
will  not  be  enough  for  us  to  maintain  our 
faith  undaunted.  We  must  grasp  it  more 
firmly  and  understand  its  consequences 
more  completely  than  we  did  before. 

In  the  chapters  that  follow  I propose 
to  take  up  both  aspects  of  this  inquiry. 
We  shall  consider,  in  the  first  place,  how 
we  are  to  meet  the  challenge  of  the  war, 
and  what  answer  our  faith  can  give  to 
the  reasons  which  are  urged  against  it. 
In  the  second  place,  we  shall  ask  our- 
selves what  we  can  learn  from  the  ex- 
perience through  which  we  are  passing, 
as  to  our  duty  for  the  future. 

But  before  we  take  up  this  more  de- 
tailed study  there  are  certain  prelim- 
inary questions  which  must  detain  us 
for  a moment.  These  have  to  do  with 
the  principles  by  which  the  practica- 
bility of  any  ideal  must  be  judged. 

What  then  are  the  principles  by  which 
[34] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


we  must  test  the  claim  of  any  social 
philosophy  to  offer  us  a practicable  mode 
of  life?  I will  mention  four:  (1)  In 
estimating  its  success  or  failure  it  must 
be  judged  by  its  own  claim,  and  not  by 
some  standard  imported  from  without. 

(2)  Where  it  is  a question  of  a process 
we  must  take  account  of  the  entire 
period  of  the  development  and  not  merely 
of  a cross-section  artificially  selected. 

(3)  In  the  case  of  a far-reaching  social 
phenomenon  like  Christianity,  which 
touches  life  on  all  sides  and  is  in  process 
of  constant  reaction  with  its  environ- 
ment, we  must  not  identify  the  religion 
whose  practicability  is  in  question  with 
the  ecclesiastical  organization  which  at 
best  imperfectly  expresses  it.  (4)  Fi- 
nally, in  disproving  any  conclusion  it  is 
not  enough  to  point  out  its  difficulties. 
We  must  face  the  alternatives,  and  show 
that  they  involve  no  difficulty  as  great 
or  even  greater. 


[35] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

When  we  apply  these  principles  to  our 
estimate  of  the  present  situation  we  shall 
be  led  to  temper  the  severity  of  our  judg- 
ment. Christianity,  whether  as  a pro- 
gramme for  the  individual  or  for  society, 
has  never  promised  itself  an  easy  vic- 
tory. It  has  been  a militant  religion, 
recognizing  evil  as  a present  fact  of  far- 
reaching  ramifications  and  insidious 
power.  The  ideal  which  it  holds  forth 
is  not  of  a gradual  unfolding,  taking  place 
automatically  and  inevitably  as  the 
flower  swells  and  ripens  under  the  sun, 
but  a conquest  over  enemies  who  need 
to  be  subdued  by  an  effort  of  the  will, 
and  whose  resistance,  even  when  suc- 
cessfully overcome,  will  leave  its  scars 
behind.  As  pictured  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, Christianity  is  a religion  of  tri- 
umph indeed,  but  a triumph  of  those 
who  have  come  through  great  tribulation, 
martyrs  and  heroes  as  well  as  saints. 

This  is  so  even  in  the  life  of  the  in- 

[36] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


dividual.  The  great  characters  which 
Christianity  has  formed  have  been  formed 
through  struggle,  and  there  have  been 
times  in  the  life  of  each  when  they  were 
tempted  to  despair  of  success.  What 
should  we  have  said  of  Augustine  if  his 
“Confessions”  had  ended  before  his  con- 
version, or  of  Luther  before  the  great 
experience  which  revolutionized  his  life? 
When  we  say  that  Christianity  is  a prac- 
ticable religion  for  the  individual  we 
mean  that,  in  spite  of  personal  failure 
and  sin,  the  motives  which  Christianity 
commands  and  the  inspiration  which  it 
supplies  have  proved  sufficient  in  the 
case  of  a multitude  of  men  and  women 
to  overcome  the  opposing  forces  of  pride, 
self-will,  and  envy,  and  to  produce  char- 
acters rounded,  harmonious,  and  com- 
plete. 

How  much  more  necessary  is  it  to 
avoid  hasty  judgments  when  we  con- 
sider the  social  practicability  of  the 
[37  t 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

Christian  religion ! For  here  we  have 
to  do  with  a process  which  instead  of 
being  complete  in  a few  score  years  is 
to  be  measured  by  millenniums.  To 
say  that  Christianity  is  socially  prac- 
ticable is  not  to  say  that  it  is  possible 
to-day  or  to-morrow,  or  even  in  the  next 
generation  to  realize  the  Christian  ideal 
in  society-— but  that  the  realization  of 
this  ideal  ought  to  be  the  aim  toward 
which  social  effort  should  be  directed, 
and  by  the  success  or  failure  of  which 
social  progress  should  be  measured.  No 
doubt  a long  process  of  education  will 
be  necessary.  No  doubt  while  the  edu- 
cation is  incomplete  and  men  who  have 
accepted  the  Christian  standard  face 
those  who  either  know  it  not,  or  who  as 
yet  reject  it,  compromises  will  be  inevi- 
table as  they  are  inevitable  to-day  in 
the  life  of  the  individual  who  as  yet  im- 
perfectly apprehends  or  at  least  imper- 
fectly realizes  the  Christian  ideal.  But 

[ 38  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


just  as  little  as  the  fact  of  such  com- 
promises makes  us  despair  of  the  prac- 
ticability of  Christianity  for  the  indi- 
vidual or  leads  us  to  abandon  the  Chris- 
tian test  of  character  in  favor  of  one  less 
rigorous  and  exacting,  ought  the  pres- 
ence of  these  social  compromises  and 
failures  to  lead  us  to  abandon  our  faith 
in  the  social  practicability  of  Christian- 
ity, provided  only  we  can  be  assured  that 
the  direction  of  social  progress  is  toward 
rather  than  away  from  the  Christian 
ideal.  It  is  not  the  fact  that  we  have 
hitherto  failed  to  realize  the  Christian 
social  ideal  that  should  discourage  us, 
but  the  abandonment  of  the  attempt, 
and  still  more  the  theoretical  justifica- 
tion of  this  abandonment  on  the  part  of 
those  who  in  their  private  life  still  call 
themselves  Christians. 

Once  more,  no  attempt  to  measure  the 
resources  at  the  command  of  Christian- 
ity in  its  world  campaign  can  be  ade- 
[39] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

quate  which  ignores  the  Christianity  out- 
side the  organized  church.  As  little  as 
the  spirit  of  any  people  can  be  measured 
by  the  state  of  its  contemporary  institu- 
tions, as  little  as  the  moral  resources  of 
a city  or  a state  can  be  estimated  by  the 
utterances  of  the  politicians  who  at  the 
moment  may  be  in  control  of  the  offices, 
can  the  spirit  of  Christianity  find  ade- 
quate expression  in  the  deliverances  of 
its  official  leaders,  or  its  aspirations  be 
limited  to  the  programme  which  at  the 
moment  may  command  the  assent  of 
ecclesiastical  authority.  Organizations 
are  proverbially  conservative.  They  are 
the  precipitate  of  the  moral  victories  of 
the  past.  Permanence  is  their  ideal 
rather  than  progress — the  thing  that  has 
been  rather  than  the  thing  that  is  to 
be.  It  is  not,  therefore,  by  the  official 
utterances  of  a religion,  valuable  and 
precious  as  these  may  be  in  their  conser- 
vation of  the  spiritual  inheritance  of  the 

[40] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


past,  that  we  are  to  estimate  the  lines 
of  its  future  development.  Rather  must 
we  gain  our  clew  to  this  in  the  strivings 
and  hopes  of  the  forward-looking,  whether 
within  the  organization  or  without-— the 
men  and  women  who  feel  within  them 
the  spirit  of  the  new  age  and  voice  the 
ideals  which  will  find  expression  in  the 
institutions  of  the  future.  The  signifi- 
cant thing  for  the  estimate  of  present- 
day  Christianity  is  not  the  fact  that  the 
official  leadership  of  the  church  has  for 
the  moment  broken  down;  that  in  each 
of  the  warring  nations  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  have  taken  their  cue  from 
the  utterances  of  their  respective  gov- 
ernments, and  with  little  or  no  criticism 
accepted  the  official  point  of  view  as 
their  own — but  that  in  every  nation 
earnest  spirits  have  found  this  attitude 
spiritually  unsatisfying,  and  are  trying 
in  their  own  way  to  express  a more  cath- 
olic and  comprehensive  ideal. 

[ 41  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

Once  more,  it  is  not  enough  to  reject 
any  conclusion  on  account  of  its  difficul- 
ties. We  must  consider  the  alternative. 
There  are  difficulties  no  doubt  in  assum- 
ing the  social  practicability  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  but  are  there  no  difficulties 
in  assuming  the  contrary?  What  those 
difficulties  may  be  has  been  brought 
home  to  the  consciousness  of  mankind 
with  a vividness  unexampled  in  history 
by  the  events  of  the  past  two  years. 
This  war  with  all  its  horrors  is  the  direct 
result  of  the  fact  that  the  men  in  con- 
trol of  the  policy  of  the  leading  Eu- 
ropean nations,  whatever  their  personal 
attitude  toward  Christianity  as  a private 
faith  may  have  been,  have  deliberately 
accepted  the  thesis  of  its  social  imprac- 
ticability and  have  been  sustained  in  this 
attitude  by  the  public  sentiment  of  their 
respective  countries.  When  the  war  is 
over  and  the  questions  of  reconstruction 
are  to  be  faced,  this  question  will  have  to 
[42] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

be  answered  by  those  responsible  for  the 
terms  of  peace;  whether  the  philosophy 
which  underlies  the  diplomacy  of  the  past 
two  generations  is  still  to  control,  or 
whether  from  the  mere  point  of  view  of 
human  prudence  and  reason,  if  from  no 
higher  ground,  it  may  not  prove  wise  to 
try  a different  method?  If  the  former 
alternative  shall  prevail,  we  know  what  to 
expect.  After  a breathing  space,  longer 
or  shorter,  there  will  be  a renewal  of  what 
we  have  been  experiencing  in  Europe  on 
a scale  as  much  more  portentous  and  ter- 
rible than  what  we  now  see,  as  the  forces 
which  in  the  meantime  modern  science 
shall  have  evoked  will  be  vaster  and  more 
appalling.  Nor  is  this  all.  With  the  rapid 
education  of  the  great  peoples  of  the 
remoter  East,  it  is  already  certain  that 
in  a time  longer  or  shorter,  but  distinctly 
measurable,  these  unnumbered  millions 
of  men,  hitherto  largely  aloof  or  qui- 
escent so  far  as  the  Western  world  is 
[43] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

concerned,  will  be  drawn  into  the  vor- 
tex, and  increase  by  their  new  reserves 
of  power  the  terror  of  the  impending 
cataclysm.  As  the  world  grows  smaller 
and  the  distant  draws  near,  the  refuges 
which  in  the  past  have  sheltered  neutral 
and  peace-loving  nations  from  the  storms 
of  war  will  grow  fewer  and  at  last  dis- 
appear altogether,  and  the  extent  and 
duration  of  the  contests  that  will  suc- 
ceed one  another  from  generation  to 
generation  in  dreadful  and  monotonous 
succession  be  measured  only  by  the  re- 
sources of  humanity  as  a whole. 

Such  then  is  the  alternative  which  we 
face  if  Christianity  be  not  socially  prac- 
ticable. And  the  question  fairly  arises 
whether  it  is  not  as  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  influences  which  within 
individual  communities  and  states  have 
gradually  substituted  the  methods  of 
co-operation  and  of  law  for  those  of 
armed  force,  may  not  find  advocates 

[ 44  ] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 


ingenious  enough  to  apply  them  to  the 
new  situation  when  once  the  magni- 
tude of  its  issues  has  been  faced. 

More  is  at  stake  than  appears  on  the 
surface.  If  is  one  thing  to  postpone 
the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  to 
realize  that  in  a process  so  complex  and 
many-sided,  involving  so  many  differ- 
ent generations  and  races,  requiring  for 
its  completion  an  education  so  pains- 
taking and  long-continued,  generations 
and  ages  may  have  to  pass  before  the 
consummation  which  is  desired  is 
reached;  it  is  one  thing — while  the 
process  is  incomplete — to  regard  each 
struggle  for  a better  social  order,  each 
new  experience  of  tragedy  following  the 
failure  of  the  old  as  one  more  step  in 
the  forward  march,  one  more  object- 
lesson  in  God’s  great  training-school  of 
brotherhood — and  quite  another  to  see 
in  the  entire  attempt  to  realize  the  ideal 
of  brotherhood  among  men  a gigantic 
[45  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


self-delusion  destined  from  the  start  to 
inevitable  failure,  and  to  be  content  for 
oneself  with  a purely  individualistic  and 
self-centred  faith. 

I do  not  say  that  life  will  not  be  pos- 
sible with  such  an  outlook.  I do  not  say 
that  religion  in  some  form  will  not  sur- 
vive. We  know  that  religion  has  an  in- 
exhaustible vitality,  and  manifests  itself 
in  the  most  forbidding  environment  and 
the  most  unexpected  forms,  but  I do  say 
that  for  the  thoughtful  man  more  will  be 
involved  in  such  an  issue  than  the  fail- 
ure of  Christianity  as  a social  scheme. 
Even  for  the  individual  it  is  hard  to  see 
how  Christianity  can  any  longer  appear 
a practicable  religion  if  by  Christianity 
we  mean  the  religion  which  accepts  the 
principles  of  Jesus  as  its  standard  of 
faith  and  life.  The  man  who  believes 
in  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brother- 
hood of  man  may  indeed  postpone  the 
coming  of  the  social  consummation.  He 
[46] 


THE  WORLD  CRISIS 

may  push  it  into  a remote  future  or  shift 
it  to  another  world.  But  there  is  one 
thing  which  he  cannot  do  without  the 
surrender  of  his  most  vital  faith,  and  that 
is,  abandon  it  altogether.  Deceive  our- 
selves as  we  may,  try  to  hide  it  from 
ourselves  as  we  will,  the  individual  and 
the  social  gospel  belong  together,  and 
one  cannot  permanently  survive  the  ship- 
wreck of  the  other. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  such  considera- 
tions that  we  have  to  approach  our 
problem  and  measure  the  arguments 
which  make  for  or  against  the  social 
practicability  of  the  Christian  religion. 


[47] 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  CHRISTIAN  INTERPRETATION 
OF  HISTORY 

In  the  last  chapter  we  considered  the 
issue  which  the  war  has  raised  for  Chris- 
tian faith.  It  is,  in  a word,  that  of  the 
social  practicability  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. Is  the  religion  that  we  profess 
valid  for  nations  as  well  as  for  individ- 
uals—a religion  which  we  can  teach  in 
our  schools,  practise  in  our  business,  and 
apply  in  all  the  complex  relations  of  our 
national  and  international  life  ? We  con- 
sidered the  attempts  which  have  been 
made  to  evade  the  issue  by  those  whose 
conception  of  Christianity  is  purely 
individualistic  and  other-worldly,  and 
found  them  unconvincing.  Finally,  we 
laid  down  certain  general  principles  by 
[ 48  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

which  the  practicability  of  any  mode  of 
life  must  be  tested.  We  have  now  to 
consider  more  in  detail  the  consequences 
which  follow  from  these  principles  for 
the  subject  of  our  present  inquiry. 

There  are  three  different  tests  which 
we  may  apply  to  the  claim  of  Chris- 
tianity to  offer  a practicable  social  pro- 
gramme. We  may  test  it  first  by  its 
diagnosis  of  the  existing  situation; 
secondly,  by  the  remedy  it  offers,  and 
thirdly,  by  the  resources  at  its  com- 
mand. 

And  first  of  the  diagnosis.  If  the 
Christian  claim  be  justified,  how  shall 
we  account  for  the  present  situation? 
The  Christian  answer  is  entirely  simple 
and  definite.  It  is  because  as  a matter 
of  fact  the  principles  of  Christianity 
have  never  been  applied. 

I do  not  mean  this  simply  in  the  sense 
in  which  it  is  true  of  our  individual  fail- 
ures that  our  accomplishment  falls  be- 
1 49  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

low  our  endeavors.  I mean  that  in  in- 
ternational  affairs  no  serious  attempt  has 
been  made  to  apply  Christian  principles 
at  all.  Even  in  countries  which  call 
themselves  Christian  the  energies  of 
Christians  have,  as  a rule,  been  confined 
to  dealing  with  individual  lives,  and  the 
larger  problems  which  concern  nations 
and  states  have,  with  few  rare  exceptions, 
been  dealt  with  either  on  principles  of 
temporary  expediency  or  of  deliberate 
selfishness. 

In  saying  this  we  are  saying  only  what 
is  generally  admitted.  Whatever  may 
have  been  their  private  faith  as  individ- 
uals, the  statesmen  who  are  responsible 
for  the  diplomacy  of  the  various  Euro- 
pean countries  have  taken  it  for  granted 
that  self-interest  must  be  the  supreme 
law  of  nations.  They  have  made  it  their 
primary  aim  to  secure  advantage  for  their 
own  people  at  the  expense  of  their  rivals, 
and  it  was  the  clash  which  inevitably 
[50] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 


resulted  from  this  policy  of  organized 
national  selfishness  which  precipitated 
the  war. 

This  does  not  mean  that  there  has 
been  no  difference  in  the  standards  of 
the  different  European  countries;  that 
idealistic  motives  have  had  no  part  to 
play  in  determining  national  policy,  or 
in  dictating  the  limits  beyond  which  a 
particular  state  was  unwilling  to  go;  but 
it  does  mean  that  when  we  take  the  his- 
tory of  Europe  in  the  large,  and  trace 
the  events  of  the  last  two  years  to  their 
remoter  causes,  we  are  led  to  a concep- 
tion of  the  relation  of  states  radically 
inconsistent  with  the  Christian  ideal. 
When  in  times  of  peace  nations  treat 
neighboring  nations  as  enemies  in  dis- 
guise, and  organize  their  resources,  dip- 
lomatic, economic,  and  military,  with  a 
view  to  possible  conflict,  it  takes  little 
intelligence  to  predict  the  results.  And 
this,  without  a single  exception,  has  been 
[51  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


the  state  of  the  leading  European  nations 
for  a generation  at  least. 

I know  no  more  pathetic  utterance  in 
all  recent  history  than  that  sentence  of 
Sir  Edward  Grey  in  the  English  White 
Book,  in  which,  pleading  against  hope 
for  one  more  day’s  delay  before  the  issue 
is  joined,  he  promises,  if  the  hoped-for 
respite  is  secured,  to  do  his  best  to  trans- 
form the  system  of  rival  alliances  which 
had  brought  the  world  to  the  verge  of 
war,  into  a real  concert  of  Europe.1  It 
is  as  if  he  had  said:  “In  the  past  we 
have  tried  to  preserve  the  world’s  peace 
by  the  appeal  to  fear;  but  now  that  it 
has  become  clear  that  this  method  has 
failed,  has  not  the  time  come  for  a dif- 
ferent experiment?  Since  international 

1 “And  I will  say  this:  If  the  peace  of  Europe  can 
be  preserved  and  the  present  crisis  safely  passed,  my 
own  endeavor  will  be  to  promote  some  arrangement 
to  which  Germany  could  be  a party,  by  which  she  could 
be  assured  that  no  aggressive  or  hostile  policy  would 
be  pursued  against  her  or  her  allies,  by  France,  Russia, 
and  ourselves  jointly  or  separately.”  (British  White 
Paper,  No.  101.) 


[52] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

rivalry  has  brought  us  to  the  brink  of  the 
precipice,  why  not  try  international  co- 
operation? I for  one  am  ready  for  it 
and  pledge  myself,  if  the  rest  of  you  will 
join  me,  to  do  what  I can  to  make  it  a 
success.” 

Alas,  it  was  too  late.  You  cannot 
turn  back  the  wheels  of  history  as  you 
can  the  hands  of  a clock.  And  all  the 
efforts  of  the  diplomats  who  in  the  fate- 
ful ten  days  that  preceded  the  outbreak 
of  war  worked  with  a good  faith  that 
there  is  no  reason  to  question,  to  stay 
the  impending  catastrophe,  were  neu- 
tralized by  forces  to  the  strengthening 
of  which  they  themselves  and  the  peo- 
ples they  represented  had  for  years, 
sometimes  consciously,  more  often  un- 
consciously, been  contributing. 

It  is  with  these  underlying  causes  that 
Christianity  is  primarily  concerned — the 
rivalries,  the  suspicions,  the  fear,  the 
greed,  the  pride,  of  which  wars  are  made. 

[ 53  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


Unlike  much  contemporary  pacifism 
which  attacks  war  directly  as  the  evil  of 
evils,  Christianity  sees  in  it  a symptom 
of  something  deeper  and  more  evil  still, 
namely,  the  radical  selfishness  of  the 
human  heart.  War  is  not  an  indepen- 
dent fact  which  can  be  isolated  from  its 
antecedents.  It  is  a part  of  the  process 
of  discipline  through  which  by  ways 
painful,  but  none  the  less  salutary,  God 
is  teaching  the  nations  their  essential 
unity,  and  training  them  for  higher 
things. 

Two  elements  then  enter  into  the 
Christian  interpretation  of  war:  first,  the 
sin  which  has  caused  it;  secondly,  the 
divine  purpose  which  is  being  fulfilled 
through  it.  It  is  only  as  we  put  the 
present  crisis  in  this  larger  context  that 
we  reach  what  is  distinctive  in  the  Chris- 
tian view. 

It  was  the  prophets  of  Israel  who  first 
clearly  perceived  this  connection.  From 
[51] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

the  first  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  had 
been  a social  religion,  in  the  sense  that 
the  unit  with  which  it  dealt  was  the 
nation,  rather  than  the  individuals  who 
composed  it;  but  it  had  been  a local 
religion.  Its  vision  was  bounded  by 
Canaan,  and  the  great  world  that  lay 
beyond  was  all  but  unknown.  The 
prophets  commanded  a broader  horizon. 
They  first  measured  the  extent  and  the 
completeness  of  Jehovah’s  control.  Not 
Israel  only  was  subject  to  his  will,  but 
the  great  world-powers — Egypt,  Assyria, 
Persia,  with  whose  fortune  that  of  Israel 
was  inextricably  involved.  All  the  move- 
ments of  contemporary  history— the 
march  of  contending  armies,  the  rise  of 
dynasties  and  the  fall  of  cities — took 
place  by  His  decree  and  for  the  execu- 
tion of  His  purpose.  The  Assyrian  was 
the  rod  of  His  anger,1  the  razor  with 
which  He  was  to  shave  head  and  beard.2 

1 Isaiah  10  : 5.  2 Isaiah  7 : 20. 

[ 55  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

Egypt  was  His  servant.1  Philistia  and 
Syria  executors  of  His  will.2  Far  from 
tlie  misfortunes  of  Israel  proving  that 
God  had  abandoned  them,  they  were 
rather  warnings  which  He  had  sent  them 
for  their  good,  stages  which  they  must 
pass  on  their  journey  to  salvation.  The 
great  thing  was  to  understand  their 
meaning,  and  to  learn  the  lessons  which 
they  were  designed  to  teach. 

Christianity  inherited  Israel’s  faith  in 
an  all-encompassing  Providence.  It  gave 
this  faith  new  significance  through  its 
new  revelation  of  God’s  character  and 
of  his  redemptive  purpose  made  known 
through  Jesus  Christ.  It  shifted  the 
emphasis  from  the  outward  drama  of  the 
army  and  the  camp  to  the  inward  struggle 
of  the  soul.  It  spiritualized  and  univer- 
salized the  social  ideal;  and  through  the 
resurrection  faith  opened  vistas  of  com- 
fort and  hope  beyond  the  grave,  denied 

1 Isaiah  19  : 19-25.  2 Isaiah  9 : 11,  12. 


[56] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

the  earlier  stages  of  Israel’s  history.  But 
it  never  wavered  in  its  faith  in  God  as 
Lord  of  all;  of  this  life  as  well  as  of  the 
life  to  come;  of  evil  as  well  as  of  good; 
of  nations  as  well  as  of  the  individuals 
who  compose  them. 

This  confidence  was  the  result  of 
no  shallow  optimism.  When  all  goes 
smoothly  it  is  easy  to  speak  and  to 
think  comfortably.  Some  of  us  have 
learned  this  to  our  cost.  We  had  under- 
estimated the  forces  which  resist  prog- 
ress. We  had  supposed  that  the  great 
prize  for  which  we  had  been  contending 
was  to  be  quickly  won;  that  war  on  a 
great  scale  belonged  to  the  past,  and 
that  our  more  enlightened  age,  in  spite 
of  its  underlying  selfishness  and  cruelty, 
could  somehow  slip  easily  into  the  King- 
dom of  God.  We  have  had  a rude 
awakening,  and  we  are  tempted  to  go 
to  the  opposite  extreme  and  to  wonder 
whether,  after  all,  Bernhardi  and  the 
f 57  1 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

prophets  of  force  are  not  right,  and  our 
ideal  of  a social  order  at  once  just  and 
free  is  not  an  idle  dream.. 

Our  predecessors  in  the  faith  were 
under  no  such  illusion.  If  they  believed 
in  peace  it  was  not  because  they  were  un- 
acquainted with  war.  There  is  no  fact 
which  confronts  us  to-day,  however  ap- 
palling and  terrible,  which  they  had  not 
looked  in  the  face.  If  they  believed  in 
God’s  control  of  history,  it  was  not  be- 
cause they  underestimated  the  forces  of 
evil,  but  because  they  had  confidence 
that  God  was  able  to  overrule  evil  for 
good. 

How  the  Old  Testament  lives  again 
in  the  light  of  contemporary  events ! 
What  a grim  commentary  upon  Isaiah 
and  Jeremiah  are  the  events  which  are 
even  now  transpiring  in  Poland  and 
France.  The  4 ‘country  desolate,”  the 
“cities  burned  with  fire,”  the  land  de- 
voured by  strangers,  “the  daughter  of 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 


Zion  left  as  a booth  in  a vineyard,  as  a 
lodge  in  a garden  of  cucumbers,  as  a 
besieged  city.”1  Then,  as  now,  “the 
hills  did  tremble,  and  their  carcasses 
were  as  refuse  in  the  midst  of  the 
streets.”2  Then,  as  now,  could  be  heard 
“the  uproar  of  many  peoples  that  roar 
like  the  roaring  of  the  seas;  and  the 
rushing  of  nations,  that  rush  like  the 
rushing  of  mighty  waters.”  3 Then,  as 
now,  the  swift  advance,  spreading  ter- 
ror with  its  impression  of  resistless 
power. 

These  are  but  examples  taken  at  ran- 
dom. How  many  times  they  could  be 
multiplied  if  we  were  to  follow  human 
history  through  all  the  tragedy  of  its 
checkered  fortunes,  and  recall  again  the 
sights  and  scenes  which  have  been  wit- 
nessed by  Christian  men  who  have  yet 
kept  a firm  faith  in  the  loving  Father 

1 Isaiah  1 : 7,  8.  2 Isaiah  5 : 25. 

3 Isaiah  17  : 12. 

[59] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

who  holds  all  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand, 
and  without  whose  will  not  even  a spar- 
row falleth. 

It  is  worth  while  to  recall  these  famil- 
iar facts,  because  they  will  help  us  to 
keep  our  sense  of  balance  and  propor- 
tion. We  speak  of  our  experience  as  un- 
paralleled in  human  history,  and  there 
is  a sense  in  which  this  is  true.  But  the 
statement  needs  qualification.  The  pres- 
ent crisis  is  unparalleled  in  magnitude, 
but  not  in  quality.  Hunger  is  hunger, 
ahd  pain  pain,  and  death  death  the 
world  over;  in  Palestine  as  in  Belgium, 
in  Rome  as  in  Austria  and  France. 
And  the  anguish  of  hope  deferred,  the 
shattering  of  ideals,  the  bitterness  of 
the  “I  would,  but  ye  would  not,”  were 
as  poignant  to  the  patriarchs  and  saints 
of  the  first  Christian  century  as  they 
can  be  to  us  to-day.  There  is  nothing, 
I repeat,  that  any  man  or  woman  or 
child  is  experiencing  to-day  which  has 
[60] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

not  been  experienced  by  others  over  and 
over  and  over  again.  There  is  no  chal- 
lenge to  faith  in  what  we  see  which  has 
not  been  met  by  faith  in  the  past  and 
vanquished. 

What,  then,  is  this  faith  that  rises 
triumphant  over  every  obstacle?  What 
does  the  Christian  see  as  he  contem- 
plates the  mysteries  of  God’s  providence 
in  history?  He  sees  three  things.  In 
the  first  place  he  sees  God  at  work  for  a 
moral  purpose.  In  the  second  place  he 
sees  God  at  work  for  a social  purpose. 
In  the  third  place  he  sees  God  at  work 
for  a religious  purpose.  Let  us  try, 
taking  the  Bible  as  our  guide,  to  under- 
stand what  this  triple  vision  means  for 
our  faith. 

When  we  say  that  God  is  in  history 
for  a moral  purpose,  we  mean  that  His 
chief  concern  is  the  making  and  training 
of  character.  Not  happiness,  but  dis- 
[61  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

cipline  is  His  primary  interest,  and  hap- 
piness, when  it  comes,  is  only  the  seal 
that  the  discipline  is  complete. 

This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that 
Christianity  is  an  ascetic  religion;  that 
it  has  no  place  and  no  regard  for  the 
simpler  pleasures  and  interests  of  com- 
mon life.  The  reverse  is  true.  The  fig- 
ures which  Jesus  uses  to  describe  His 
kingdom  are  the  familiar  figures  of  the 
peasant  life  on  the  soil — the  fisherman 
with  his  nets,  the  sower  with  his  seed,  the 
father  with  his  children,  the  friend  with 
his  friend,  the  host  with  his  guests. 
The  ideal  state,  when  it  comes,  will  be 
one  of  prosperity  and  peace.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  prophets  about  the  holy 
city  surrounded  by  fertile  fields  and  in- 
habited by  prosperous  and  contented 
people  recurs  in  the  Christian’s  descrip- 
tion of  the  new  Jerusalem.  But  these 
things  are  incidental  to  the  main  pur- 
pose, which  is  the  establishment  of  jus- 
[ 62  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

tice  and  brotherhood  among  men.  When 
Messiah  comes  it  will  be  to  judge  the 
world  with  righteousness  and  vindicate 
the  moral  government  of  God. 

This  explains  the  Christian’s  attitude 
toward  suffering.  It  is  God’s  means  of 
training  character.  Far  from  its  being 
a sign  of  His  forgetfulness,  the  proof  of 
His  weakness  or  of  His  indifference,  it  is 
through  suffering  that  God  teaches  His 
most  important  lessons  and  opens  the 
way  for  the  impartation  of  His  choicest 
blessings. 

Here,  too,  the  work  of  the  prophets 
was  epoch-making.  In  a world  full  of 
anguish  and  strife,  to  a people  tempted 
to  believe  that  God  had  utterly  forsaken 
them,  they  bring  their  assurance  of  a 
loving  purpose,  using  evil  as  an  instru- 
ment of  good.  “You  only  have  I known 
of  all  the  families  of  the  earth,”  is  Jeho- 
vah’s message  to  Israel  through  Amos, 
“therefore  I will  visit  upon  you  all  your 

[ 63  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

iniquities.”1  Love  is  not  afraid  to  in- 
flict suffering,  when  the  loved  one  is  in 
mortal  danger.  Where  there  is  sloth 
and  self-indulgence  and  unbrotherliness, 
there  must  be  suffering  if  there  is  to  be 
salvation. 

This  does  not  mean  that  all  suffering 
is  due  to  sin.  We  shall  see  presently 
that  much  suffering  has  a very  different 
explanation.  But  it  means  that  while 
sin  continues,  suffering  must  continue; 
and  that  where  we  find  evidence  on  a 
national  scale,  and  over  long  periods  of 
time  of  social  misery  and  social  degra- 
dation, we  may  be  sure  that  there  is  at 
root  a moral  cause. 

The  first  lesson,  then,  that  comes  to 
us  as  Christians,  as  we  contemplate  the 
sufferings  of  the  present,  is  that  of  the 
need  of  self-examination  and  penitence. 
These  great  evils  have  not  come  upon 
mankind  without  a cause,  and  it  is  our 

1 Amos  3 : 2. 

[ 64  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 


duty,  so  far  as  we  can,  to  understand 
this  cause,  that  we  may  do  our  part  to 
remove  it. 

One  of  the  encouraging  features  of 
the  present  situation  is  that  it  has  put 
the  moral  issue  again  in  the  centre  of 
attention.  We  had  been  told  that  man- 
kind had  outgrown  the  sense  of  sin,  but 
to-day  we  see  it  revived  in  the  most  un- 
expected quarters.  It  is  the  subject  of 
the  diplomatic  correspondence.  It  gives 
its  tragic  interest  to  the  official  papers, 
white,  yellow,  and  gray.  The  theme  of 
them  all  is  moral  responsibility.  What 
is  the  contention  of  each  of  the  parties 
in  this  gigantic  controversy  if  not  that 
they  are  fighting  to  uphold  the  elemental 
principles  of  justice  and  morality  against 
men  who  have  banded  themselves  to- 
gether for  purposes  of  selfishness  and 
greed?  It  is  not  we  who  are  guilty,  so 
runs  the  official  apologetic  of  all  the  na- 
tions. But  that  there  has  been  guilt 

[65] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


on  a scale  the  most  colossal  in  history  all 
are  agreed.  What  is  this  but  a confes- 
sion that  the  sense  of  sin  is  still  alive  in 
men,  and  that  the  old  questions  of  guilt 
and  punishment  are  still  living  questions. 

But  the  Bible  not  only  points  out  to 
us  the  inevitable  connection  between  sin 
and  suffering,  it  shows  us  also  what  is 
the  root  of  all  our  misery.  This  sin  is 
unbrotherliness.  It  is  the  self-centred 
life,  regarding  only  its  own  interests  and 
indifferent  to  the  needs  and  sufferings  of 
others,  which  in  every  age  has  been  the 
spring  of  social  jealousy  and  social  un- 
rest. What  the  Assyrians  planned  to 
do  to  Israel  as  a whole,  individual  Israel- 
ites, relying  on  their  superior  advantages 
of  birth,  or  place,  or  wealth,  had  done 
in  effect  to  their  less  fortunate  fellow 
countrymen.  They  had  treated  them 
as  the  raw  material  of  their  own  pleasure 
and  gain.  They  had  ignored  their  rights 
as  human  beings — common  children  of 
[ 66  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

a common  father — to  a life  that  was  full 
and  free.  The  national  misery  which 
involved  their  own  fortunes  with  those 
whom  they  had  despised  and  oppressed 
was  the  natural  and  inevitable  conse- 
quence of  the  national  sin. 

We  stand  too  near  the  great  crisis  of 
our  time  to  attempt  any  judicial  appor- 
tionment of  guilt  or  blame.  That  will 
be  undertaken  in  due  course,  and  before 
the  bar  of  history  each  will  be  obliged 
to  answer  for  the  things  done  and  left 
undone.  But  back  of  the  question  of 
immediate  responsibility — the  question 
of  who  touched  the  spark  which  caused 
the  great  explosion — there  is  the  deeper 
question  of  the  underlying  conditions 
which  made  the  explosion  inevitable 
when  the  spark  was  applied.  Here  there 
can  be  no  easy  shifting  of  responsibility. 
Each  of  us  has  his  share  to  bear  in  the 
common  burden  of  sin.  Whatever  dur- 
ing all  the  years  that  have  gone  has  sown 
[67] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

envy  and  distrust  between  individuals 
and  nations;  wherever  the  weak  have 
been  oppressed  and  the  longing  for  free- 
dom has  been  stifled ; wherever  men  have 
thought  basely  of  their  fellows,  attribut- 
ing to  them  conduct  and  desires  which 
they  would  despise  in  themselves;  wher- 
ever brute  force  has  been  magnified 
as  the  supreme  reality,  and  the  power 
of  love  has  been  belittled  or  denied; 
wherever,  in  short,  individuals  and  na- 
tions calling  themselves  Christian  have 
denied  by  their  conduct  the  religion 
they  profess,  there  they  have  been  lay- 
ing the  train  which  was  some  day  des- 
tined to  explode  in  bitterness  and  hate. 
As  certainly  as  day  follows  night,  so  cer- 
tainly suffering  follows  sin.  It  is  futile 
to  cry,  Peace,  Peace,  when  there  is  no 
peace.  It  is  idle  to  expect  peace  where 
the  causes  which  produce  war  remain 
unremoved. 

There  is  nothing,  therefore,  in  what 
[68] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

we  see  to  dismay  or  to  discourage  us; 
nothing  that  we  could  not  have  pre- 
dicted if  we  had  read  our  Bibles  aright. 
What  we  see,  so  far  from  being  a dis- 
proof of  God’s  moral  government  of 
men,  is  the  most  august  demonstration 
the  world  has  yet  seen  of  the  inexorable- 
ness of  the  moral  law  and  the  inevitable- 
ness of  the  penalties  which  follow  its 
violation.  Once  again  God  is  teaching 
us  by  the  most  terrible  of  all  examples 
that  the  one  sure  guarantee  of  peace  is 
justice  between  nations  and  brotherhood 
among  men. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  second  article 
in  the  Christian  philosophy  of  history — 
that  God’s  purpose  in  history  is  a social 
purpose.  It  is  not  simply  the  training 
of  the  individual  as  an  individual,  but 
the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  which 
is  his  supreme  concern,  and  this  intro- 
duces complications  into  the  situation. 

[ 69  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


It  explains  the  strange  phenomenon,  so 
baffling  to  faith,  of  the  suffering  of  the 
innocent  with  the  guilty. 

From  the  beginning  this  has  been  the 
crux  of  the  problem  of  suffering.  It  was 
not  hard  to  understand  suffering  where 
there  was  sin.  The  mystery  was  rather 
on  the  other  side,  that  so  often  the  wicked 
seemed  to  escape  their  just  punishment. 
But  that  the  righteous  should  suffer 
while  the  wicked  went  scot-free,  this 
seemed  a challenge  of  God’s  moral  gov- 
ernment so  staggering  that  for  long — 
even  in  the  face  of  the  most  convincing 
evidence — men  refused  to  believe  in  the 
fact.  We  see  this  in  the  attitude  of 
Job’s  friends-— when  they  insist,  in  spite 
of  Job’s  denial,  that  where  there  is  so 
much  suffering  there  must  have  been 
corresponding  sin.  We  see  it  in  the 
protest  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  when 
they  repudiate  the  old  proverb:  “The 
fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes  and  the 
1 70  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

children’s  teeth  are  set  on  edge.”  1 And 
yet  it  remains  true  that  the  innocent  do 
suffer  with,  and  for,  the  guilty,  and  that 
the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  are  visited 
upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and 
fourth  generation.  What  does  it  mean? 

There  are  two  things  which  it  might 
mean.  One  is  that  the  ultimate  reality 
is  force,  and  that  the  Christian  faith  in 
the  loving  Father,  who  cares  for  each  one 
of  His  human  children,  is  without  foun- 
dation in  fact.  The  other  is  that  the 
individual  is  not  the  final  unit;  that  be- 
cause God’s  plan  is  social,  a family,  and 
not  simply  a collection  of  unrelated  sons 
and  daughters,  His  method  of  training 
must  be  more  complex  than  would  be 
the  case  if  He  were  dealing  with  isolated 
individuals.  It  is  the  latter  which  is 
the  Christian  view.  God’s  method  is  a 
method  of  redemptive  love,  and  redemp- 
tive love  saves  by  vicarious  suffering. 

1 Jer.  31  : 29,  30;  Ezek.  18  : 2,  3. 

[71  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

Of  all  the  revolutions  in  human  valua- 
tion I know  of  none  more  revolutionary 
than  this.  It  is  the  supreme  example 
of  Nietzsche’s  Umwerthung  aller  Werthe. 
We  glean  some  estimate  of  it  in  the  awed 
surprise  with  which  the  great  prophet 
of  the  Exile  records  the  story  of  his  own 
discovery  as  he  follows  the  experience 
of  the  suffering  servant.  “He  was  de- 
spised and  rejected  of  men,  a man  of 
sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief;  and 
as  One  from  whom  men  hide  their  face 
He  was  despised,  and  we  esteemed  Him 
not.  Surely  He  hath  borne  our  griefs 
and  carried  our  sorrows;  yet  we  did 
esteem  Him  stricken,  smitten  of  God  and 
afflicted.  But  He  was  wounded  for  our 
transgressions,  He  was  bruised  for  our 
iniquities.  The  chastisement  of  our 
peace  was  upon  Him,  and  with  His 
stripes  we  are  healed.”  1 The  righteous 
suffer  for  the  wicked  that  the  wicked 


1 Isaiah  53  : 3-5. 
[72] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

may  be  saved.  This  is  the  Christian 
solution  of  the  problem  of  problems,  the 
suffering  of  the  innocent  with,  and  for, 
the  guilty.  It  is  God’s  method  of  re- 
demption, the  method  of  vicarious  suffer- 
ing, the  method  which  finds  its  supreme 
example  and  seal  in  the  cross  that  was 
set  up  on  Calvary. 

It  is  not  easy  to  exaggerate  the  im- 
portance of  the  cross  for  Christianity. 
It  dominates  our  theology.  It  sets  the 
tone  of  our  religious  feeling.  It  gives 
the  key  to  our  theodicy.  Where  other 
religions  have  shrunk  from  pain  as  the 
supreme  evil,  or  turned  aside  from  it  as 
the  supreme  mystery,  Christianity  looks 
it  full  in  the  face  and  finds  in  it  the  price 
of  salvation.  “Him  who  knew  no  sin, 
God  made  to  be  sin  on  our  behalf  that 
we  might  become  the  righteousness  of 
God  in  Him.” 1 

But  it  is  a question  whether  even  yet 
*H  Cor.  5 : 21. 

[ 73  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

we  have  learned  the  full  meaning  of  the 
cross.  Its  very  wonder  has  shrouded  it 
in  an  artificial  mystery.  It  has  been 
isolated  from  all  other  human  experi- 
ences as  an  event  wholly  sui  generis.  It 
has  been  explained  as  God’s  method  of 
dealing  with  the  sin  of  the  individual — 
your  sin  and  mine— the  way  in  which  the 
burden  of  the  guilty  soul  has  been  shifted 
to  the  shoulders  of  the  guiltless  Christ. 

But  the  cross  has  another  and  an  even 
deeper  meaning — a meaning  not  individ- 
ual merely,  but  social.  It  is  the  supreme 
revelation  of  a law  that  is  valid  every- 
where and  always,  the  law  of  the  soli- 
darity of  all  mankind  in  the  moral  life. 
It  is  not  simply  that  Christ  was  willing 
to  suffer  for  my  sin.  It  is  that,  being 
what  He  was,  He  could  not  but  suffer  for 
it.  When  He  became  man  it  was  not 
merely  as  an  isolated  individual,  but  as 
a member  of  the  human  family.  He 
became  involved  in  all  the  fortunes  of 
[74] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

the  race,  subject  to  that  mysterious  law 
of  which  we  have  spoken,  that  binds  us 
all  up  together  in  one  common  bundle  of 
life,  so  that  not  one  of  us  can  live  for 
himself  alone,  but  each  is  involved,  for 
good  or  for  evil,  in  the  fortunes  of  all 
the  rest. 

How  much  this  consciousness  of  hu- 
man solidarity  has  been  reinforced  by  the 
events  of  the  past  two  years ! We  are 
learning  in  a terrible  text-book  the  truth 
of  the  old  words  that  God  has  “made 
of  one  every  nation  of  men.”  We  have 
seen  the  war  reaching  beyond  the  nations 
immediately  engaged,  and  laying  its  ruth- 
less and  destroying  hands  upon  peace- 
loving  and  inoffensive  people.  There  is 
not  an  island  so  remote  but  feels  the 
electric  shock.  There  is  not  a man  or 
woman  so  humble  but  on  their  shoulders 
some  new  burden  will  be  laid  as  a direct 
result  of  this  war.  The  time  has  gone 
by  when  any  nation  can  say  to  other 
[75] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


nations:  “ It  is  no  concern  of  yours  what 
I do  to  my  neighbor.”  For  good  or  for 
evil  (for  evil  certainly  if  not  for  good) 
we  are  members  one  of  another.  We 
have  been  told  it  before,  we  know  it 
now. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  this  mat- 
ter of  human  solidarity  which  it  is  just 
as  important  for  us  to  understand,  and 
that  is  its  function  as  an  agent  of  salva- 
tion. We  have  learned  that  there  is  a 
divine  law  which  involves  us  all  alike 
in  the  consequences  of  past  sin.  We 
have  yet  to  learn  that  the  same  law  may 
be  made  equally  effective  in  the  trans- 
mission of  good. 

And  yet  this,  too,  is  the  lesson  of  the 
cross.  There  is  a contagion  of  good  as 
well  as  of  evil.  As  the  sin  of  mankind 
brought  suffering  to  the  innocent  Christ, 
necessarily,  and  as  part  of  God’s  law,  so 
the  courageous  acceptance  of  that  suffer- 
ing by  Christ  brought  salvation  to  sin- 
[76] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

ful  mankind,  with  an  equal  necessity, 
and  as  part  of  a law  equally  divine.  In 
redemption,  as  in  suffering,  Christ  is  the 
type  of  humanity  at  its  best.  What  was 
true  of  Him  on  the  supreme  scale,  and 
in  exceptional  degree,  may  be  true  on  a 
lesser  scale,  but  no  less  truly  in  the  case 
of  every  man  or  woman  who  follows  Him 
in  His  path  of  loving  sacrifice,  and  has 
learned  from  the  heart  to  pray  His  prayer 
after  Him,  “Father,  forgive  them,  for 
they  know  not  what  they  do.”  Paul 
filling  up  on  his  part  “that  which  is  lack- 
ing of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  . . . for 
His  body’s  sake,  which  is  the  Church,”  1 
Latimer  bidding  the  faltering  Ridley 
“Be  of  good  comfort,  and  play  the  man,” 
since  “we  shall  light  such  a candle  by 
God’s  grace  in  England  as,  I trust,  shall 
never  be  put  out,”  are  but  the  most  con- 
spicuous examples  of  the  great  company 
of  every  name  and  age  who,  having  fol- 
1 Col.  1 : 24. 

[ 77  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

lowed  Christ  in  His  sufferings,  have 
shared  with  Him  also  the  triumph  of 
sacrificial  love. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  that  the  Christian 
must  contemplate  the  terrible  events 
through  which  we  are  passing.  As  they 
are  the  supreme  proof  of  the  solidarity 
of  mankind  in  suffering,  so  they  offer 
the  supreme  promise  of  the  solidarity 
of  mankind  in  salvation.  If  the  suffer- 
ings which  this  great  war  lays  upon  the 
innocent  breed  only  feelings  of  bitterness 
and  hatred;  if  they  are  met  with  the 
resolve  to  return  the  same  in  kind  with 
interest  to  the  oppressor  when  the  bal- 
ance of  power  inclines  to  the  other  side; 
if  the  answer  (the  final  answer,  I mean) 
to  a desolated  France  be  a ravaged  Ger- 
many, then  this  war  will  prove  but  one 
more  chapter — the  most  terrible  to  date 
— in  the  long  story  of  bitterness  and 
hatred  of  which  history  is  full.  But  if 
the  sufferers  can  learn  from  Christ  His 

[ 78  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

lesson  of  forgiveness;  if  they  can  see 
in  their  experience,  as  He  saw  in  His, 
the  price  of  salvation  not  for  themselves 
only,  but  for  those  who  have  done  them 
wrong;  if  their  experience  of  the  evils 
of  war  make  them  but  the  more  resolute 
and  the  more  courageous  in  their  pur- 
suit of  a just  and  lasting  peace,  then  the 
outcome  of  the  great  struggle  may  be  a 
new  era  of  mutual  understanding,  and 
the  blood  of  the  martyrs  prove  once 
again  the  seed  of  a new  and  a better 
Church. 

Much  has  been  said  of  the  compen- 
sation which  is  to  be  given  to  Belgium 
when  the  war  is  over.  What  compensa- 
tion can  be  given  to  a country  which  has 
suffered  what  she  has  suffered  and  is 
suffering?  Will  you  give  her  money? 
Will  money  bind  up  her  broken  hearts, 
turn  gray  hairs  brown,  and  recall  her 
sons  and  daughters  from  the  grave  ? 
Will  you  renew  the  guarantee  of  her  in- 

[ 79  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

dependence  ? What  treaty  that  the  hand 
of  man  can  write  can  rid  her  of  the 
haunting  sense  of  insecurity  which  is  the 
legacy  of  human  faithlessness  where  faith 
was  due  ? There  is  one  gift  which  could 
be  given,  and  one  only,  which  would  de- 
serve the  name  of  compensation,  and 
that  is  the  knowledge  that  through  her 
suffering,  appealing  to  mankind  as  no 
national  suffering  has  done  since  the  days 
when  Israel’s  tragedy  lent  the  Prophet 
his  figure  of  the  Christ  to  come,  there 
had  been  born  in  every  country  in  Chris- 
tendom such  a sense  of  the  futility  and 
wickedness  of  war,  such  shame  at  the 
profanation  of  the  Christian  name  by 
deeds  essentially  anti-Christian,  such  a 
searching  of  heart  as  to  the  causes  of 
this  pitiable  relapse  to  barbarism  and 
penitence  for  whatever  in  the  life  of  each 
had  made  it  possible;  above  all,  such 
determination  that  such  a tragedy  should 
never  happen  again,  as  should  mark  the 
[80] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 


end  of  this  whole  dark  chapter  of  human 
history  and  usher  in  a new  era  of  con- 
fidence, brotherhood,  and  peace. 

Is  it  to  be  so?  That  depends  upon 
the  power  which  is  really  strongest 
in  history,  whether  the  God  in  whom 
we  believe — the  God  of  righteousness 
and  wisdom  and  love — is  really  in  con- 
trol. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  third  article 
in  the  Christian  philosophy  of  history, 
the  most  significant  and  momentous  of 
all,  and  that  is  that  God  is  in  history  for 
a religious  purpose,  a purpose,  that  is 
to  say,  which  involves  the  training  of 
man  for  fellowship  with  God,  and  man’s 
consciousness  of  God’s  solidarity  with 
him  in  all  his  experiences. 

Here,  too,  we  have  to  do  with  an  in- 
sight slowly  won,  and  often  inadequately 
grasped.  At  first  men  thought  of  God 
as  outside  of  the  drama  of  history — the 
[81] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

spectator,  the  playwright;  if  acting  at 
all,  only  occasionally,  at  set  times  and 
for  specific  purposes,  but  not  himself  in- 
volved in  His  inner  life  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  human  actors  He  set  in  motion. 
This  was,  on  the  whole,  the  dominant 
Greek  conception,  and  it  recurs  again 
and  again  in  Christian  history.  God  is 
the  onlooker,  sympathetic  indeed,  and 
well  disposed,  whose  great  calm  we  may 
hope  to  share  in  the  good  time  coming 
when  this  life  is  over,  and  the  other  which 
lies  beyond  has  begun. 

But  the  prevailing  Christian  concep- 
tion is  very  different.  It  is  not  merely, 
as  we  have  seen,  that  God  is  in  history, 
immanent  as  well  as  transcendent,  actor 
as  well  as  spectator;  but  that  He  is  in- 
volved in  His  inmost  life  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  human  participants.  He  not  only 
acts,  He  cares.  When  Israel  sins,  the 
burden  falls  not  on  man  only,  but  on 
God.  He  is  like  the  husband  whose  wife 
[82] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 


has  committed  adultery; 1 the  father 
whose  children  have  rebelled  against 
him.2  If  he  punishes,  it  is  not  because 
he  is  indifferent  or  angry,  but  because 
he  earnestly  desires  their  moral  good. 
There  is  no  suffering  of  theirs  in  which 
he  does  not  share.  “In  all  their  afflic- 
tion He  was  afflicted;  ...  in  His  love 
and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them; 
and  He  bare  them  and  carried  them  all 
the  days  of  old.”  3 

It  is  only  in  the  light  of  this  truth 
that  we  grasp  the  full  meaning  of  the 
cross.  I have  spoken  of  it  in  its  human 
significance  as  a revelation  of  the  law  of 
vicarious  sacrifice  which  is  valid  for  man 
as  well  as  God.  But  this  is  only  one 
side,  and  not  the  deepest,  of  its  mean- 
ing. It  is  the  revelation  of  the  heart  of 
God.  It  shows  God  involved  with  us, 
in  our  deepest  tragedy,  fellow  sympa- 

1 Hosea  1,2.  2 Deut.  32  : 6,  20. 

3 Isaiah  63  : 9. 


[83] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


thizer  with  us  in  our  sorrow,  fellow 
sufferer  with  us  in  our  sin.  It  is  the 
assurance  that  the  pain  which  we  suffer 
is  not  wantonly  sent.  It  is  the  supreme 
pledge  that  the  ultimate  outcome  will 
be  good. 

Here,  and  here  alone,  do  we  find  the 
complete  Christian  theodicy,  our  ground 
for  faith  in  the  essential  goodness  of  the 
world.  We  win  this  faith,  not  by  ignor- 
ing evil,  or  by  belittling  it,  but  by  trans- 
figuring it  with  the  glory  of  the  Divine 
sympathy  and  the  serenity  of  the  Divine 
purpose.  It  is  a great  thing  to  feel  that 
our  suffering  may  have  a part  to  play  in 
promoting  human  progress;  it  is  an  even 
greater  to  realize  that  through  it  we  may 
gain  an  insight  into  the  heart  of  God. 

Here,  too,  with  much  that  is  baffling 
and  discouraging,  the  war  has  brought 
us  unexpected  reinforcement  of  faith. 
Where  the  mind  sees  only  difficulty,  the 
heart  has  its  own  logic,  and  in  the  pres- 
[ 84  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

ence  of  a need  too  great  for  human  help, 
God  finds  his  opportunity  of  self-revela- 
tion. 

Illustrations  of  this  fact  have  been 
coming  to  us  from  every  army  in  the 
field.  Wherever  we  turn  we  hear  of  the 
spirit  of  prayer  in  the  trenches.  The 
Russians  kneel  before  their  priests  to  re- 
ceive their  blessing  before  they  advance 
to  battle.  The  French  priests  are  on 
the  firing-line,  ready  at  any  moment  to 
celebrate  a mass  or  to  read  a prayer  for 
the  dying.  From  the  English  lines  come 
stories  of  religious  revival.  From  Ger- 
many we  hear  of  filled  churches,  and  of 
the  revival  of  the  spirit  of  prayer.  Let- 
ters from  the  front  breathe  an  unwonted 
seriousness.  To  many  a man  who  sel- 
dom named  the  name  of  Christ,  he  has 
become  a familiar  friend. 

“Involuntarily,”  writes  a Berlin 
teacher  serving  in  the  trenches  in  Poland, 
“thoughts  turn  from  this  world  to  the 
185] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


regions  beyond.  Spontaneously  one  feels 
one’s  way  back  to  God,  and  realizes  the 
great  blessing  of  the  church.  Sometimes 
when  we  were  compelled  to  lie  still  on  the 
firing-line  under  a most  intense  shower  of 
bullets  many  hands  were  folded  and  many 
lips  moved  in  silent  prayer,  while  others 
told  their  rosaries.  Afterward  one  can 
see  the  expression  of  joyful  peace  on  all 
faces.” 

The  same  experience  is  put  more 
naively  by  an  English  Tommy  in  the  lines 
entitled,  “Christ  in  Flanders.” 

“We  had  forgotten  you,  or  very  nearly. 

You  did  not  seem  to  touch  us  very  nearly. 

Of  course  we  thought  about  you  now  and 
then, 

Especially  in  any  time  of  trouble. 

We  knew  that  you  were  good  in  time  of 
trouble, 

But  we  are  very  ordinary  men. 

“And  there  were  always  other  things  to 
think  of, 


[ 86  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

There’s  lots  of  things  a man  has  got  to 
think  of; 

His  work,  his  home,  his  pleasure,  and  his 
wife; 

And  so  we  only  thought  of  you  on  Sunday, 

Sometimes  perhaps  not  even  on  a Sunday, 

Because  there’s  always  lots  to  fill  one’s  life. 

“Now  we  remember,  over  here  in  Flanders. 

It  isn’t  strange  to  think  of  you  in  Flanders. 

This  hideous  warfare  seems  to  make  things 
clear. 

We  never  thought  about  you  much  in  Eng- 
land. 

But  now  that  we  are  far  away  from  Eng- 
land, 

We  have  no  doubts;  we  know  that  you  are 
here.” 

No  doubt  there  is  another  side  to  the 
picture.  To  many  the  war  has  been 
only  benumbing  and  brutalizing,  accen- 
tuating tendencies  to  evil  already  pres- 
ent, but  till  now  held  in  check.  But  for 
the  more  thoughtful  and  earnest  it  has 
acted  as  a call  to  religion,  reviving  the 
consciousness  of  the  God  in  whom  till 
[ 87  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

then  they  had  scarcely  realized  they  be- 
lieved. 

There  is  a truth  here  of  which  we  need 
to  be  constantly  reminded.  In  times  of 
prosperity,  when  life  is  easy,  and  plea- 
sure the  chief  preoccupation,  it  is  easy 
to  forget  God.  The  factors  in  our  en- 
vironment which  we  can  see  and  handle 
and  measure  seem  entirely  adequate  to 
account  for  the  results  we  experience, 
and  the  arguments  of  the  sceptic  who 
finds  God  a needless  hypothesis  win  a 
ready  assent.  But  when  trouble  comes 
and  the  familiar  props  fail  us,  we  find 
to  our  surprise  that  there  is  something 
in  us  of  which  we  had  not  taken  account. 
The  conclusions  to  which  our  logic  seemed 
forcing  us  become  suddenly  intolerable. 
We  awake  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
Great  Companion,  and  we  look  up  and 
take  courage. 

We  who  are  religious  teachers  have 
been  slow  to  learn  this  lesson.  We  have 
[ 88  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

thought  that  we  could  prove  God  by 
reason  to  men  who  had  not  yet  discov- 
ered His  presence  in  experience.  We 
have  constructed  syllogisms  and  balanced 
probabilities,  and  met  the  arguments  of 
our  opponents  with  counter-arguments, 
and  we  have  been  surprised  that  the  con- 
viction which  we  hoped  to  produce  did 
not  follow. 

But  this  is  because  we  have  been  pro- 
ceeding in  the  wrong  way.  We  have 
argued  where  we  should  have  assumed. 
It  is  not  our  place  to  prove  to  men 
without  God  that  God  exists,  but  to 
point  out  to  men  already  in  contact  with 
God  through  nature,  through  history, 
through  their  own  personal  life,  the  mean- 
ing of  their  experience. 

This  does  not  mean  that  reason  can 
do  nothing  to  help  faith,  but  only  that 
it  must  be  used  in  the  right  way.  The 
true  function  of  a religious  philosophy  is 
not  proof  but  interpretation.  It  is  its 

[89] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

task  to  point  out  the  experiences  of  the 
soul,  out  of  which,  as  a matter  of  fact 
and  not  of  theory,  faith  in  God  grows, 
and  the  needs  of  the  heart  to  which  faith 
in  Christ  answers. 

How  many  they  are!  There  is  the 
need  of  guidance  as  we  face  the  mystery 
of  life  and  realize  how  many  questions 
there  are  which  we  cannot  answer.  There 
is  the  need  of  comfort  as  we  meet  life’s 
disappointments  and  failures.  There  is 
the  need  of  forgiveness  as  we  realize 
with  shame  our  own  personal  shortcom- 
ings and  sins.  There  is  the  need  of  in- 
spiration as  the  monotony  of  life’s  rou- 
tine dulls  our  sensibility  and  renders  us 
unresponsive  to  new  appeals  for  service 
and  for  heroism.  There  is  the  need  of 
companionship  as  one  by  one  the  old 
friends  drop  away  and  there  are  no  new 
ones  to  fill  the  accustomed  places.  Above 
all,  there  is  the  need  of  hope  as  we  face 
such  an  impasse  as  seems  to  confront  the 
[ 90  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

world  to-day,  and  we  are  tempted  to 
despair  of  any  guidance  wise  enough  to 
find  a way  out. 

These  elemental  needs  and  experiences 
of  the  soul  are  the  real  ground  of  our 
faith  in  God.  It  is  our  privilege  to  in- 
terpret their  significance  to  those  who 
have  not  yet  discovered  it,  and  so  to  di- 
rect the  latent  energies  of  the  soul  into 
their  appropriate  channel. 

This  was  Jesus’  way.  He  did  not  try 
to  prove  to  men  that  God  existed.  He 
took  that  for  granted.  But  He  talked 
to  them  about  their  Father,  His  care  of 
them,  His  plans  for  them,  their  duty  to 
Him,  and  He  urged  them  to  put  His 
teaching  to  the  proof,  and  to  see  if  it 
did  not  come  true. 

This  too  was  Paul’s  method.  He  never 
talked  to  men  as  if  they  were  without 
experience  of  God.  He  came  to  them 
as  bringing  a fuller  message  about  the 
God  they  knew  already  in  part,  and  wor- 
[ 91  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


shipped  imperfectly.  He  spoke  out  of 
experience  to  experience,  and  his  appeal 
was  always  to  a more  perfect  experience. 

This  has  been  the  method  of  the  great 
evangelists  of  every  age.  They  have 
preached  God  as  the  most  real  and  the 
most  familiar  of  facts,  and  trusted  the 
conscience  of  their  hearers  to  answer 
with  an  Amen.  And  now  the  war  has 
come  to  prove  that  they  were  right — 
that  in  the  very  quarters  where  God 
seemed  most  forgotten,  His  Spirit  has 
been  at  work  all  the  time,  and  it  needed 
only  the  occasion  to  reveal  His  presence. 

It  is  this  discovery  of  God’s  present 
companionship  in  trial  and  danger,  which 
is  our  deepest  ground  for  faith  in  immor- 
tality. Immortality,  as  the  Christian 
conceives  it,  is  more  than  a substitute 
for  joys  denied  here,  a compensation  for 
suffering  and  limitations  otherwise  insup- 
portable. It  is  the  completion  of  a fel- 
lowship begun  here;  the  consummation 
[ 92  ] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

in  all  its  richness  and  fullness,  of  a Di- 
vine companionship  which  has  already 
made  life  supremely  satisfying.  It  is 
not  because  life  means  little  to  us  that 
we  desire  to  live  by  and  by,  but  because 
Christ  has  filled  life  so  full  of  undreamed- 
of possibilities;  has  made  personality  so 
much  bigger  and  better  a thing  than  we 
had  dared  to  hope  it  could  be. 

Nowhere  is  this  consciousness  of  life’s 
inherent  value  more  vivid  than  in  the 
case  of  the  young.  When  one  reads  the 
casualty  lists  that  are  published  week  by 
week,  and  realizes  how  many  of  those 
who  have  fallen  are  only  boys  at  the  very 
threshold  of  their  lives;  when  one  sees 
the  portraits  of  the  bright  young  faces 
which  fill  page  after  page  of  the  illus- 
trated papers,  so  full  of  hope  and  en- 
thusiasm and  the  joy  of  life,  one  feels 
that  if  there  be  any  reason  in  the  world, 
there  must  somewhere  be  a place  where 
these  unused  powers  shall  find  employ- 
[93] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


ment,  and  these  unsatisfied  desires  satis- 
faction. 

And  it  is  not  simply  the  number  of 
these  young  lives  that  forces  upon  us 
the  question  of  another  life.  It  is  their 
quality.  It  is  the  new  revelation  which 
this  war  has  brought  of  the  inherent 
dignity  of  human  nature,  of  man’s  ca- 
pacity for  courage  and  sacrifice  and  loy- 
alty. Surely  a being  as  great  as  man  is 
showing  himself  to  be  is  made  for  some 
end  that  endures  beyond  the  span  of  this 
life.  Surely  the  God  who  has  fashioned 
such  finely  tempered  instruments  will 
not  suffer  them  to  rust  unused. 

It  is  in  this  faith,  and  with  this  in- 
sight that  we  must  face  the  crisis  which 
has  come  upon  us.  There  are  many 
pressing  duties  which  the  hour  has 
brought,  duties  of  action,  duties  of  de- 
cision, duties  of  endurance.  But,  press- 
ing and  important  as  these  duties  may 
be,  there  is  a duty  still  more  pressing 
[94] 


INTERPRETATION  OF  HISTORY 

and  still  more  important;  and  that  is 
to  bear  our  part  in  the  inner  contest 
which  is  to  decide  whether  the  ultimate 
outcome  of  all  our  struggle  shall  be  a 
victory  for  faith  or  for  unbelief.  Is 
force  to  be  supreme  in  the  world,  or  is 
there  something  stronger  still — the  love 
that  bears  and  forbears,  that  “suffereth 
long  and  is  kind,”  that  “taketh  not 
account  of  evil,”  that  “rejoiceth  not  in 
unrighteousness,  but  rejoiceth  with  the 
truth”?1  Is  Christ  to  be  the  ultimate 
conqueror  or  the  Superman  of  Nietzsche  ? 
This  is  the  question  of  questions,  and  the 
scene  of  its  ultimate  decision  is  the  heart 
of  man. 

This,  then,  is  the  call  that  comes  to 
us  who  call  ourselves  Christians,  in  this 
hour  that  tests  men’s  souls.  It  is  a call 
to  inner  clarity  and  freedom  that,  as 
we  study  the  working  of  God’s  provi- 
dence in  history,  we  may  do  so  by  the 

1 1 Cor.  13  : 4,  5,  9. 

[95] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

light  that  shines  from  His  Divine  Spirit 
in  our  own  hearts.  It  is  a call  to  con- 
fidence and  courage,  that  through  our 
experience  of  God’s  present  working  in 
the  soul  of  man  we  may  win  assurance 
of  that  larger  life  to  which  He  is  leading 
us  in  the  better  country  that  is  still  be- 
yond our  sight.  Above  all,  it  is  a call 
to  fellowship  in  service  that,  as  men  of 
faith  and  brotherly  love,  enlisted  under 
Christ  for  the  struggle  against  the  inner 
passions  that  are  more  deadly  than  any 
outward  foe,  we  may  make  our  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  that  is  to  be. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  CHRISTIAN  PROGRAMME  FOR 
HUMANITY 

From  diagnosis  we  turn  to  remedy; 
from  the  explanation  of  the  causes  of 
the  war  to  the  method  by  which  it  is 
proposed  to  neutralize  them.  Here  too 
the  Christian  proposal  is  entirely  simple 
and  definite.  It  is  a change  of  spirit. 

Suppose  peace  were  to  be  declared  to- 
morrow. What  good  would  it  do  if  there 
were  no  change  in  the  attitude  of  the 
nations  which  are  fighting?  If  the  fear 
and  suspicion  and  mistrust  and  hatred 
that  are  so  much  in  evidence  to-day  were 
still  to  persist;  if  the  mad  race  of  arma- 
ments by  land  and  by  sea  were  to  go 
on  unchecked;  if  each  man  and  woman 
[97] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

and  child  in  each  of  the  countries  osten- 
sibly at  peace  knew  that  the  respite  from 
slaughter,  whether  longer  or  shorter,  was 
to  be  used  by  each  in  devising  means 
for  being  deadlier  and  more  dangerous 
still  when  the  breathing  space  should  be 
over  and  the  battle  be  on  again— would 
such  peace  as  this  be  worth  while  ? Could 
we  in  good  conscience  pray  for  it? 

Ah,  no,  it  is  something  different  that 
we  have  in  mind.  We  want  a peace  that 
will  be  lasting  and  permanent  because  it 
springs  from  confidence  and  good-will. 
Such  a peace  as  exists  between  the  differ- 
ent States  of  this  country,  once  rivals  in 
arms;  between  the  provinces  of  Ger- 
many, once  independent  and  hostile 
states;  between  Canada  and  the  United 
States,  where  for  a hundred  years  along 
a frontier  three  thousand  miles  long  no 
rifle  has  been  discharged,  and  the  foot- 
step of  no  watching  patrol  resounds. 
We  want  a peace  that  frees  men  not 
[ 98  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

simply  from  the  experience  but  from  the 
nightmare  fear  of  war,  which  releases 
energies  that  would  otherwise  be  diverted 
to  preparation  against  the  inevitable 
catastrophe  and  turns  them  to  the  pur- 
suit of  righteousness  and  the  realizing 
of  spiritual  ideals. 

For  this  more  is  necessary  than  the 
cessation  of  fighting.  There  must  be  a 
change  in  the  spirit  of  the  fighters.  An 
armistice  is  not  peace,  whether  it  last 
for  a week  or  for  a generation.  We  want 
more  than  the  silencing  of  cannon  and 
the  disbanding  of  armies.  We  want  a 
change  of  mental  attitude  toward  this 
whole  matter  of  peace  and  war  so  funda- 
mental and  revolutionary  as  to  require 
a complete  reconstruction  of  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  the  relations  between 
nations  have  hitherto  rested.  War,  as 
we  have  seen,  is,  after  all,  only  a symp- 
tom, and  no  remedy  which  deals  with 
symptoms  alone  can  effect  a complete 

[ 99  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

cure.  War  is  the  result  of  a mental  atti- 
tude of  suspicion,  rivalry,  and  distrust 
which  has  in  turn  been  engendered  by 
centuries  of  social  wrong.  A peace  that 
involved  the  continuance  of  these  senti- 
ments and  the  perpetuation  of  these 
wrongs  would  be  as  unstable  as  it  would 
be  unsatisfying.  The  true  remedy  lies 
deeper  in  the  removal  of  the  causes  of 
enmity,  and  this  is  possible  only  through 
the  practice  in  national  and  international 
as  well  as  in  individual  relations  of  the 
Christian  principles  of  co-operation,  sym- 
pathy, and  service. 

Jesus  had  a name  for  the  society  which 
is  characterized  by  this  spirit.  He  called 
it  the  Kingdom  of  God.  By  the  King- 
dom of  God  we  mean  the  new  social  order 
in  which  the  principles  of  Christ  shall 
dominate  all  the  relations  of  life;  a so- 
ciety in  which  trust  shall  replace  fear, 
love  take  the  place  of  strife,  co-operation 
of  selfish  competition;  in  which  helpful- 
[ 100  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 


ness  shall  be  the  test  of  greatness,  and 
the  supreme  reward,  the  consciousness  of 
having  deserved  well  of  one’s  kind. 

Three  points  need  emphasis  in  con- 
nection with  this  definition  of  the  King- 
dom. In  the  first  place,  its  extent;  in 
the  second  place,  its  nature;  in  the  third 
place,  the  means  of  its  realization. 

In  the  first  place,  its  extent.  It  is  a 
universal  kingdom,  taking  in  all  races 
and  all  ages,  including  the  living  and 
the  dead.  In  contrast  to  all  tribal  and 
national  religions,  Christianity  is  inter- 
national. Its  unit  is  humanity;  its  stand- 
ard for  nations  as  well  as  for  individ- 
uals the  family;  its  sanction  the  loving 
will  of  the  Father-God.  War  is  the  ne- 
gation of  all  these.  Its  ideal  is  that  of 
the  conqueror,  its  unit  the  nation  armed; 
its  standard  enlightened  self-interest;  its 
sanction  force.  War,  therefore,  not  sim- 
ply in  its  consequences  but  in  its  ideals, 
is  the  uncompromising  foe  of  all  in  which 

1 101  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

as  Christians  we  believe  and  for  which 
we  ought  to  strive. 

This  does  not  mean  that  Christianity 
ignores  national  distinctions  any  more 
than  that  it  ignores  individual  distinc- 
tions of  capacity  and  of  function.  On 
the  contrary,  as  we  shall  see  presently, 
it  gives  them  new  dignity  and  impor- 
tance. But  it  is  true  that  it  refuses  to 
regard  them  as  ultimate.  They  exist 
not  for  their  own  sake,  but  as  part  of  a 
larger  unity  to  which  they  contribute 
each  their  quota,  as  the  individuals  who 
compose  them  add  each  his  part  to  the 
fulness  of  the  national  life. 

In  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  there  is  a 
famous  passage1  which  pictures  the  future 
of  the  nations  in  the  form  of  an  interna- 
tional brotherhood.  It  looks  forward  to 
the  time  when  Egypt  and  Assyria,  the 
former  oppressors  of  Israel,  shall  be  con- 
verted to  the  true  religion  and  worship 

1 Isaiah  19,  16-25. 

[ 102  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

the  true  God.  Led  by  their  own  par- 
ticular paths  of  discipline  and  of  failure, 
chastened  by  suffering,  redeemed  from 
sin,  they,  like  Israel,  shall  enter  upon  a 
new  era  of  national  prosperity  and  right- 
eousness. The  old  enmities  will  be  for- 
gotten, the  old  hatreds  outgrown.  For 
rivalry  will  be  substituted  sympathy, 
and  for  warfare  co-operation.  “In  that 
day  shall  there  be  a highway  out  of 
Egypt  to  Assyria,  and  the  Assyrian  shall 
come  into  Egypt,  and  the  Egyptian  into 
Assyria;  and  the  Egyptians  shall  wor- 
ship with  the  Assyrians.  In  that  day 
shall  Israel  be  the  third  with  Egypt  and 
with  Assyria,  a blessing  in  the  midst  of 
the  earth,  for  that  Jehovah  of  hosts  has 
blessed  them,  saying:  Blessed  be  Egypt 
my  people,  and  Assyria  the  work  of  mine 
hands,  and  Israel  mine  inheritance.” 

To  understand  the  significance  of  this 
prophecy  we  must  translate  it  into  mod- 
ern phrase.  For  Israel  read  Belgium; 

[ 103  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

for  Egypt,  Germany;  for  Assyria,  Eng- 
land, and  we  shall  be  better  able  to  ap- 
preciate the  prophet’s  meaning.  Let  us 
suppose  that  Belgium  had  suffered  at 
the  hands  of  England  also  what  she  has 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  Germany;  and 
the  prophet,  himself  a Belgian,  survey- 
ing the  misery  of  his  country,  for  so 
many  generations  the  battleground  of 
contending  armies,  asks  himself  what  is 
to  be  the  outcome  of  this  national  tragedy, 
and  finds  his  answer  in  a new  and  bet- 
ter future  for  which  it  is  a preparation. 
“In  that  day  there  shall  be  a highway 
out  of  Germany  into  England,  and  the 
English  shall  come  to  Germany,  and  the 
Germans  to  England,  and  the  Germans 
shall  worship  with  the  English.  In  that 
day  Belgium  shall  be  the  third  with  Ger- 
many and  England,  a blessing  in  the 
midst  of  the  earth,  for  that  Jehovah  of 
hosts  has  blessed  them  saying:  Blessed 
be  Germany,  my  people,  and  England 

[ 104  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

the  work  of  mine  hands,  and  Belgium 
mine  inheritance.” 

It  is  the  Christian  picture  of  the  ideal 
society,  a society  in  which  brotherhood 
shall  be  as  real  between  nations  as  it  is 
to-day  between  the  best  individuals. 

This  suggests  a second  characteristic 
of  the  Christian  society.  It  is  a spiritual 
society.  That  is  to  say,  a society  in 
which  the  ties  between  its  members  are 
personal  and  moral,  love  rather  than 
law,  loyalty  rather  than  compulsion,  the 
free  assent  of  all  to  a common  ideal  rather 
than  any  external  device  to  secure  uni- 
formity, whether  of  action  or  belief.  It 
is  a society  of  brothers  freely  working  to- 
gether for  common  ends. 

This  does  not  mean  that  Christianity 
is  indifferent  to  the  accepted  forms  of 
social  organization,  but  only  that  it  re- 
gards these  as  means  rather  than  as  ends. 
Like  the  nation  it  has  its  institutions, 
and  has  embodied  its  beliefs  in  creeds, 
[ 105  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

and  its  worship  in  sacrament  and  ritual. 
But  these  exhaust  its  life  as  little  as  the 
life  of  the  nation  is  exhausted  by  its  con- 
stitution and  laws.  Behind  the  church 
that  we  see,  with  its  organization  and 
ritual,  there  is  a greater  and  a more 
majestic  structure-— the  society  of  re- 
deemed personalities  who  own  allegiance 
to  Jesus  Christ,  and  live  for  the  ends 
which  he  approves. 

We  have  been  slow  to  recognize  this 
fact.  In  religion  as  on  all  sides  of  our 
life,  that  which  is  visible  and  tangible 
tends  to  crowd  out  the  unseen  and  the 
spiritual.  The  forms  that  were  devised 
as  aids  to  faith  become  our  masters. 
The  institution  usurps  the  place  of  the 
men  and  women  whose  life  it  was  de- 
signed to  nourish,  and  ecclesiastical  con- 
formity is  made  the  test  of  spiritual  life. 
Only  in  times  of  crisis,  like  the  present, 
when  the  real  issues  at  stake  stand  out 
in  all  their  clarity  above  the  mists  of  the 
[ 106  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

conventional  and  the  customary,  do  we 
realize  the  true  significance  of  the  Chris- 
tian ideal  as  a society  of  persons  freely 
co-operating  for  a common  end. 

And  this  leads  us  to  consider  in  the 
third  place  the  means  by  which  the  ends 
of  the  Kingdom  are  secured.  They  cor- 
respond to  its  nature  as  a spiritual  so- 
ciety, realizing  its  life  through  the  inter- 
play of  personalities.  Between  persons, 
external  constraint  can  effect  nothing  de- 
cisive. The  only  effective  way  to  in- 
fluence a spiritual  being  is  through  his 
ideals. 

This  does  not  mean,  of  course,  that 
external  means  have  no  place  in  the 
Christian  scheme  of  things.  Like  all 
other  human  beings,  the  Christian  is 
housed  in  the  body  and  must  face  the 
physical  and  economic  problems  which 
life  in  the  body  brings  with  it.  Like 
them  he  must  use  science,  physical,  edu- 
cational, social,  to  subdue  the  forces 
[ 107  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

which  oppose  him  and  harness  nature  to 
his  tasks.  Like  them  he  may  be  obliged 
at  times  to  use  force  to  resist  force,  and 
gain  security  for  the  peaceful  develop- 
ment he  requires.  But  this  thing  is  cer- 
tain, that  force  as  such  can  never  of  it- 
self secure  the  ends  he  seeks.  It  can  at 
most  remove  obstacles.  It  cannot  build 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  For  this  there  is 
but  one  way  open  to  Christians,  the 
trust  and  love  that  beget  answering 
trust  and  love  in  others. 

Like  all  our  greater  problems,  then, 
this  of  Christianizing  society  proves  to 
be  psychological.  It  is  a question  of 
controlling  the  motives  which  determine 
the  will.  Selfishness  must  be  replaced 
by  sympathy,  suspicion  by  confidence, 
the  rivalry  of  class  or  race  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  kind.  Only  when  this  has 
been  done;  only  as  men  come  to  feel 
their  kinship  with  one  another,  and  re- 
solve to  live  together  as  kindred  should, 
[ 108  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

can  we  hope  to  deal  successfully  with 
those  other  problems,  economic,  indus- 
trial, political,  upon  the  solution  of  which 
the  possibility  of  an  efficient  and  health- 
ful social  life  depends. 

Such  then  is  the  Christian  programme, 
universal  in  scope,  spiritual  in  nature,  a 
society  of  brothers  bound  to  one  another 
by  common  ideals,  common  aspirations, 
and  common  experience.  Is  it  possible 
to  realize  such  a society  in  fact? 

There  are  two  quarters  in  which  the 
Christian  solution  of  the  social  problem 
is  challenged.  It  is  challenged  by  ma- 
terialism, and  it  is  challenged  by  nation- 
alism. The  first  questions  the  means 
which  it  proposes  to  employ  to  secure 
its  end;  the  second  rejects  the  end. 

The  quarrel  of  materialism  with  Chris- 
tianity has  to  do  with  its  reliance  on 
spiritual  forces.  For  faith  it  would  sub- 
stitute science,  for  the  spirit  of  brother- 
[ 109  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


hood  improved  economic  conditions.  Let 
us  better  man’s  material  welfare,  it  tells 
us,  and  his  moral  status  will  take  care 
of  itself. 

In  the  past  Christian  theologians  have 
dealt  with  materialism  chiefly  as  a phil- 
osophical theory.  They  have  met  its 
arguments  with  their  counter-arguments, 
and  in  ways  made  familiar  by  the  theistic 
text-books  have  tried  to  establish  the 
reasonableness  of  the  religious  interpre- 
tation of  the  world. 

I do  not  propose  here  to  retraverse 
this  familiar  ground,  but  there  is  another 
and  a more  convincing  method  by  which 
we  may  test  the  claim  of  materialism  to 
give  us  a satisfying  philosophy  of  life, 
and  that  is  by  its  fruits.  For  the  last 
two  generations  the  apostles  of  material 
civilization  have  had  things  all  their  own 
way.  They  have  commanded  the  ser- 
vices of  the  ablest  men  of  their  day. 
They  have  gained  the  mastery  of  re- 
[ no  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

sources  undreamed  of  by  their  ancestors. 
They  have  heaped  up  wealth  on  a scale 
that  to  the  men  of  even  a hundred  years 
ago  would  have  surpassed  the  wildest 
dreams  of  avarice;  with  the  result  that 
to-day  we  see  all  Europe  banded  together 
to  destroy  the  very  wealth  which  it  has 
been  laboring  so  long  to  produce. 

There  is  nothing  in  this  at  which  to 
be  surprised.  It  is  only  what  we  might 
have  expected  beforehand,  had  we  been 
wise  enough  to  learn  the  lessons  of  our 
own  past.  Power  alone  can  give  us  no 
guarantee  of  social  betterment,  and  sci- 
ence is  power  pure  and  simple,  as  potent 
for  evil  as  for  good.  Give  power  to  a 
good  man  and  he  will  use  it  beneficently. 
Give  it  to  a selfish  man  and  it  will  en- 
large his  ability  to  enslave  his  fellow  men. 
Science  untamed  by  love  has  proved  it- 
self the  great  destroyer,  blotting  out  in  a 
single  day  what  it  has  cost  the  labor  of 
a generation  to  produce.  It  is  not  sci- 
[ in  1 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

ence  that  must  save  men,  but  faith, 
faith  in  some  beneficent  purpose  run- 
ning through  life,  in  some  wise  and  lov- 
ing Power  on  whom  we  all  depend. 

Por  we  cannot  escape  faith  if  we 
would.  The  choice  is  not  between  sci- 
ence and  faith,  but  between  two  rival 
faiths,  each  using  science  for  its  own 
purpose.  Of  course  we  need  science  to 
help  us  in  our  constructive  work.  Of 
course  it  is  our  duty  to  conserve  our 
material  resources  and  better  our  eco- 
nomic condition.  But  the  point  is  that 
we  have  power  enough  now  and  knowl- 
edge enough  to  make  the  world  over,  if 
only  our  ideals  were  right  and  our  mo- 
tives pure.  It  is  our  ideals  that  must  be 
changed.  If  we  are  to  effect  any  per- 
manent improvement,  it  is  here  that  we 
must  begin. 

So  stated,  the  Christian  plan  seems 
not  so  unreasonable  after  all.  For  faith 
in  self,  or  class,  or  race,  or  nation,  it 
[ 112  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

offers  faith  in  Christ  as  the  inclusive 
figure  in  whom  each  alike  finds  its  true 
place  and  rightful  consummation.  It 
would  deliver  us  from  a narrow  allegiance 
to  one  that  is  world-wide,  and  for  a 
method  that  knows  no  final  arbitrament 
but  the  sword,  would  substitute  the 
divine  method  of  forgiveness,  of  trust, 
and  of  service. 

Nationalism  goes  still  further  in  its 
denial.  Where  materialism  questions  the 
means,  it  rejects  the  end.  For  humanity 
it  would  substitute  the  nation  as  the 
final  goal  of  effort.  Peaceably  it  may  be, 
but  if  not,  by  war  it  proposes  to  advance 
the  national  interest  and  safeguard  the 
national  welfare. 

You  will  notice  that  I have  spoken  of 
nationalism  and  not  of  patriotism.  Na- 
tionalism is  exclusive  in  its  spirit,  exalt- 
ing the  nation  at  the  expense  of  its  rivals 
and  indifferent  to  their  rights  and  wel- 
fare. Patriotism  is  love  of  one’s  coun- 
[ 113  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

try  for  its  higher  spiritual  aspects,  and 
is  consistent  with  cosmopolitanism,  in  the 
largest  sense.  Nationalism  says,  “My 
country  right  or  wrong,”  and  stops  there. 
Patriotism  adds,  “Right  that  she  may  be 
kept  right,  wrong  that  she  may  be  made 
right.”  To  the  nationalist,  the  nation  is 
ultimate;  to  the  patriot,  she  is  the  dear- 
est member  of  the  family  of  nations. 

Nationalism  in  this  narrow  sense  is 
essentially  antichristian.  It  seeks  na- 
tional aggrandizement,  or  at  least,  na- 
tional advantage  in  complete  indifference 
to  the  welfare  and  the  rights  of  others. 
It  has  no  comprehensive  world  policy. 
It  sees  nothing  ahead  but  the  continuance 
of  the  present  condition  of  organized 
savagery  we  call  militarism.  Its  high- 
est hope  is  that  its  own  nation  may  by 
some  supreme  effort  prove  itself  master 
at  last  of  all  its  rivals.  For  this  it  is 
willing  to  sacrifice  everything,  even  if 
need  be,  Christianity  itself. 

[ H4  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

In  times  of  peace  those  who  hold  this 
brutal  philosophy  hesitate  to  show  them- 
selves in  their  true  colors,  but  when  war 
comes  they  throw  off  the  mask.  War 
gives  the  advocates  of  national  selfish- 
ness their  chance.  The  altruistic  influ- 
ences against  which  they  have  to  con- 
tend under  normal  conditions  are  for 
the  moment  removed,  and  they  are  free 
to  organize  the  nation’s  life  after  their 
own  ideals.  Let  them  but  keep  control 
long  enough  and  they  will  do  irreparable 
damage.  In  spite  of  all  that  we  may 
say  or  do,  they  and  not  the  idealists  who 
are  dying  by  thousands  at  their  bidding, 
will  organize  the  new  world  which  is  even 
now  in  the  making. 

For  the  dangerous  thing  about  nation- 
alism, and  the  point  at  which  its  unchris- 
tian character  most  clearly  appears,  is 
not  the  fact  that  it  insists  that  a nation 
must  be  ready  to  defend  itself  if  it  should 
be  attacked,  but  that  it  makes  the  possi- 
[ 115  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


bility  of  war  the  controlling  factor  in 
the  determination  of  national  policy  in 
time  of  peace. 

I was  reading  recently  an  article  by 
Mr.  Jane,  a distinguished  English  naval 
expert,  on  the  naval  policy  of  the  United 
States.  In  this  article  he  expressed  his 
belief  that  the  plans  now  under  con- 
sideration by  the  American  Government 
would  prove  inadequate,  and  that  it 
would  become  necessary  very  largely  to 
increase  the  number  of  our  ships  and  men. 
His  reason  for  the  opinion  was  that 
while  the  plans  now  proposed  were  ade- 
quate to  repel  an  attack  upon  a single 
ocean,  they  were  not  sufficient  to  meet 
a simultaneous  attack  on  two.  Suppose 
Germany  and  Japan  should  unite  to  at- 
tack the  United  States,  what  then  ? “We 
can,  if  we  like,  consider  such  a future 
alliance  as  quite  improbable.  But  navies 
are  not  built  to  face  probabilities,  but 
possibilities.”1 

1 Boston  Evening  Transcript,  July  8,  1916. 

[ 116  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

Could  there  be  a clearer  reductio  ad 
absurdum  of  militarism  ? Where  in  every 
other  sphere  of  life  we  are  expected  to 
make  probability  the  guide  of  action, 
here  and  here  alone  we  are  to  be  gov- 
erned by  possibilities.  If  the  Christian 
programme  be  impracticable  what  shall 
we  say  of  the  alternative  which  these 
practical  men  offer  us?  It  is  the  per- 
petuation to  the  end  of  time  of  the  law 
of  the  jungle,  a ceaseless  struggle  for 
existence  in  which  the  weaker  go  to  the 
wall,  in  which  might  makes  right,  in 
which  necessity  knows  no  law.  Surely 
a philosophy  which  offers  us  no  outlook 
more  attractive  than  this  cannot  hope 
permanently  to  satisfy  the  human  heart. 

And  as  a matter  of  fact  it  does  not 
satisfy  it.  It  does  not  satisfy  even  the 
men  who  profess  to  hold  it.  When  face 
to  face  with  the  issue,  the  most  uncom- 
promising imperialist  shrinks  from  the 
consequences  of  his  own  logic.  He  does 
not  accept  the  jungle  as  his  picture  of 
[ H7  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

the  ideal  state.  He  believes,  at  least  he 
tells  us  that  he  believes,  in  culture,  in 
civilization,  in  humanity,  in  the  world 
state,  and  all  the  other  beautiful  ideals 
of  the  spirit.  He,  too,  wishes  to  organize 
the  world  for  ideal  ends,  only  he  does 
not  think  it  practicable  to  do  it  in  the 
Christian  way. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the 
features  of  the  present  war  is  that  it  is 
being  fought  by  men  who  profess  to  be 
fighting  because  of  their  love  of  peace. 
These  are  not  mercenaries  who  are  fight- 
ing, soldiers  by  profession,  who  follow 
arms  because  they  love  war,  but  civilians 
—lawyers  and  merchants,  farmers  and 
professors  and  clerks— men  who  have 
left  home  and  family  at  the  call  of  duty, 
as  they  believe,  in  order  to  preserve  the 
institutions  of  civilized  society  which 
alone  make  life  worth  living. 

The  spirit  of  the  soldiers  is  reflected 
in  the  language  of  the  governments. 

[ 118  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

As  we  have  already  seen,  no  one  of 
them  is  willing  to  take  the  responsibility 
of  having  begun  the  war.  Each  declares 
that  it  is  its  opponent  who  must  bear  the 
blame  for  this  crime  against  humanity. 
Each  insists  that  it  is  fighting  a defensive 
war,  and  that  its  sole  object  is  a just  and 
lasting  peace. 

On  April  5,  1916,  the  German  Chan- 
cellor delivered  a speech  in  the  Reichstag, 
in  which  he  outlined  Germany’s  plans 
for  the  future.  Speaking  of  the  condi- 
tions to  be  faced  after  the  war,  he  used 
these  words:  “The  Europe  which  will 
arise  from  this  crisis,  which  is  the  most 
severe  in  the  history  of  all  time,  will  be 
a new  Europe  in  many  respects.  The 
blood  which  has  been  shed  will  never  be 
repaid,  and  the  wealth  which  has  been 
destroyed  can  be  replaced  but  slowly. 
Europe  must  be  for  all  nations  that  in- 
habit it  a continent  of  peaceful  labor. 
The  peace  which  ends  this  war  must  be 
[ H9  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

a lasting  peace,  and  must  not  bear  the 
germ  of  new  wars,  but  that  of  a peaceful 
arrangement  of  all  European  questions.”1 

Similar  sentiments  have  been  expressed 
by  all  the  governments  at  war.  I was 
in  England  during  the  days  that  imme- 
diately preceded  the  declaration  of  war, 
and  I can  testify  out  of  my  own  experi- 
ence to  the  strength  and  extent  of  the 
desire  for  peace,  and  to  the  shrinking  on 
all  sides  from  the  thought  of  a European 
war.  There  was  a sense  of  horror  in  the 
prospect  as  of  men  conscious,  like  the 
heroes  of  the  old  Greek  tragedies,  that 
they  were  being  driven  against  their  will 
into  committing  some  appalling  crime. 

What  an  unconscious  testimony  we 
have  here  to  the  extent  of  Christ’s  in- 
fluence! So  far  as  ideals  at  least  are 
concerned  the  enlightened  public  opinion 
of  mankind  has  been  converted  already. 

1 London  Times,  weekly  edition,  April  14,  1916,  p. 
271. 


[ 120  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

Imagine  Julius  Caesar  apologizing  for  go- 
ing to  war,  and  justifying  the  conquests 
of  the  Roman  legions  on  the  ground  of 
their  benefit  to  the  conquered.  Imagine 
Napoleon  doing  so.  So  much  at  least 
Christ  has  accomplished  as  to  make  the 
conscience  of  civilization  uneasy  at  the 
thought  of  war,  and  to  make  universal 
brotherhood  seem  desirable,  if  it  could  be 
attained. 

This  conclusion  then  follows  with  an 
irresistible  logic:  Either  the  time  will 
come  when  the  nations  will  realize  the 
folly  of  the  present  system  of  interna- 
tional anarchy,  and  seriously  attempt 
to  apply  Christian  principles  to  interna- 
tional affairs,  or  we  must  resign  our- 
selves to  a future  of  anarchy  from  which 
the  stoutest  imagination  may  well  shrink 
back  appalled.  The  appeal  to  self-in- 
terest has  been  tried  and  failed;  the  ap- 
peal to  fear  has  been  tried  and  failed. 
1 121  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

One  method  only  remains  to  be  tried, 
the  method  of  co-operation,  of  trust,  of 
service. 

But  is  the  Christian  method  practica- 
ble? Is  the  issue  a living  issue?  Must 
we  not  confess— -shrink  from  it  as  we 
will— -that  there  is  no  alternative  open, 
things  being  as  they  are,  and  man  being 
what  he  is,  but  an  endless  succession  of 
struggle  and  failure  and  hate,  such  as 
has  filled  the  history  of  mankind  in  the 
past  ? 

Certainly,  if  the  present  be  the  measure 
of  the  future,  there  is  no  alternative. 
If  there  be  no  springs  of  power  in  hu- 
man nature  as  yet  untapped;  if  there 
be  no  reserves  of  divine  reinforcement 
on  which  we  have  not  yet  drawn,  then 
indeed  we  must  confess  that  the  case  is 
hopeless. 

But  that  is  not  the  way  we  act  in  other 
realms  of  human  experience.  The  one 
distinguishing  and  original  thing  about 
[ 122  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

man  is  the  fact  that  he  has  never  been 
willing  to  make  the  past  his  measure  of 
the  future.  In  man  alone  among  the 
living  creatures  that  populate  the  globe 
we  find  the  creative  and  prophetic  in- 
stinct. Man  lives  by  faith  and  grasps 
the  thing  that  is  to  be  while  yet  it  seems 
impossible.  All  that  we  hold  most  pre- 
cious in  human  life,  in  science,  in  art,  in 
the  state,  we  owe  to  this  indomitable 
hopefulness.  There  was  a time  when 
every  man’s  hand  was  against  his  neigh- 
bor, and  in  all  the  ranges  of  forest  and 
plain  that  were  open  to  human  habita- 
tion there  was  no  oasis  where  a man 
could  take  refuge  and  feel  sure  that  he  was 
safe.  But  we  have  created  states  and  na- 
tions, and  within  these  at  least  have  sub- 
stituted law  for  the  sword,  and  confidence 
for  suspicion.  There  was  a time  when 
the  seas  were  barriers  that  separated 
men  of  one  land  from  another  by  an  im- 
passable gulf.  There  was  a time  when 
[ 123  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

it  seemed  as  impossible  that  a man  should 
raise  himself  above  the  earth  into  the 
air  as  that  he  should  pull  down  a moun- 
tain by  his  own  unaided  strength.  But 
now  the  seas  have  become  highways  for 
commerce  which  bind  all  the  world  into 
one,  and  we  fly  above  the  mountains 
with  a swiftness  and  security  that  grow 
more  astonishing  with  every  passing  day. 
The  impossible  of  yesterday  has  become 
the  possible  of  to-day.  And  all  because 
men  have  refused  to  accept  this  funda- 
mental heresy  of  unbelief,  that  because 
we  have  failed  in  the  past  we  must  still 
fail  in  the  future. 

So  it  is  in  this  matter  of  our  Christian 
faith.  If  the  ideal  which  we  hold  is 
really  a desirable  ideal,  and  if  the  only 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  realization  is 
in  the  human  spirit,  then  we  must  set 
about  changing  that  spirit  and  we  must 
believe  that  it  can  be  done. 

Are  we  told  that  it  is  impossible?  It 

[ 124  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

is  being  done  before  our  eyes.  It  is 
being  done  in  the  interests  of  the  very 
policy  which  is  proposed  as  a rival  to 
Christianity.  Men  are  systematically 
training  their  fellow  men  to  regard  the 
citizens  of  other  nations  with  suspicion 
and  distrust,  and  they  are  succeeding  in 
their  attempt.  Do  not  let  us  deceive 
ourselves  into  believing  that  the  spirit 
that  now  reigns  over  so  wide  a part  of 
the  human  race  is  normal  or  natural  to 
man.  It  is  itself  the  result  of  a process 
of  education,  in  part  deliberate,  in  part 
unconscious,  through  which  men  have 
been  taught  to  associate  all  good  with 
their  own  country  and  to  look  upon  the 
countries  to  which  at  the  time  they  hap- 
pen to  be  opposed  in  policy,  as  danger- 
ous and  unprincipled  rivals  whom  it  is 
the  highest  duty  of  the  patriot  to  oppose 
and  if  need  be  to  crush. 

Most  ominous  of  all  the  revelations 
which  the  war  has  brought  has  been  its 
[ 125  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

disclosure  of  the  extent  to  which  the 
organs  of  public  opinion  have  been  used 
to  influence  national  sentiment  against 
peace  and  for  war.  Partly  this  has  been 
done  through  the  press,  partly  through 
the  schools.  University  professors  have 
lent  themselves  to  the  propaganda,  pub- 
licists have  preached  the  gospel  of  na- 
tional aggrandizement  and  national  glory. 
Children  have  been  taught  from  infancy 
to  look  upon  the  citizens  of  other  coun- 
tries as  possible  enemies,  and  upon  mili- 
tary service  as  the  highest  form  of  pa- 
triotism. In  part  no  doubt  those  who 
have  taken  the  lead  in  this  movement 
have  been  animated  by  motives  with 
which  we  must  sympathize.  It  is  one  of 
the  tragic  by-products  of  militarism  that 
it  creates  the  dangers  against  which  it 
warns.  When  all  Europe  is  an  armed 
camp,  it  were  folly  for  the  patriot  to  be 
blind  to  the  dangers  to  his  own  country. 
One  can  only  honor  a soldier  like  the 
[ 126  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

late  Lord  Roberts,  who  — in  face  of  the 
danger  which  he  regarded  as  imminent- 
consecrated  his  last  years  to  a campaign 
in  favor  of  universal  military  service  for 
England.  But  behind  such  sincere  and 
unselfish  characters,  advocates  of  pre- 
paredness in  the  interest  of  peace,  as 
chivalrous  to  their  opponents  as  they 
are  loyal  to  their  own,  we  discern  other 
and  more  dangerous  figures,  philosophers 
like  Treitschke  and  Cramb,  who  cele- 
brate war  for  the  moral  discipline  it 
brings,  and  others  even  more  sinister, 
to  whom  war  or  at  least  the  fear  of  war 
means  personal  profit  and  enhanced  pres- 
tige; manufacturers  to  whom  it  brings 
increased  dividends,  capitalists  to  whom 
it  opens  new  markets,  journalists  who 
see  in  it  the  material  of  a new  sensation. 
It  is  these  men  and  the  influences  which 
they  set  in  motion  which  constitute  the 
real  danger  against  which  we  need  to 
be  on  our  guard,  the  most  formidable 

[ 127  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


obstacle  to  the  creation  of  that  saner 
public  sentiment  without  which  perma- 
nent peace  is  impossible. 

What  is  true  of  Europe  is  no  less  true 
of  the  United  States  and  of  Japan.  The 
most  serious  danger  to  the  future  good 
relations  between  the  two  countries  is 
not  any  real  incompatibility  of  inter- 
ests, but  the  jingo  spirit.  There  are  men 
to-day  on  both  sides  of  the  Pacific  who 
for  reasons  in  part  sincere,  in  part  selfish, 
are  systematically  working  to  stir  up  ill 
feeling  and  suspicion  between  two  neigh- 
bors who  for  every  reason  of  history, 
of  sentiment,  and  of  interest  ought  to  be 
friends.  They  attribute  to  each  designs 
against  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of 
the  other.  They  repeat  in  exaggerated 
form  every  utterance  on  either  side  of 
the  ocean  which  is  calculated  to  wound 
sensibility  and  inflame  passion.  They 
speak  of  war  between  the  two  countries 
as  not  only  possible  but  likely,  and  urge 
[ 128  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

each  to  arm  to  be  ready  for  the  impend- 
ing conflict.  So  through  the  very  reit- 
eration of  possibilities  which  as  yet  have 
no  existence  beyond  their  own  brain, 
they  do  their  best  to  make  them  actual. 

It  is  such  a spirit  as  this,  a spirit  of 
suspicion  and  distrust,  systematically  cul- 
tivated through  a long  period  of  time 
which  is  responsible  for  the  present  war, 
as  it  has  been  responsible  for  most  of  the 
wars  of  the  past.  It  is  this  which  has 
changed  the  war  from  a war  of  govern- 
ments into  one  of  peoples,  and  made  it 
the  tragic  and  heart-breaking  thing  it  is. 
It  is  this  spirit  which  we  must  somehow 
exorcise  if  we  are  to  secure  the  perma- 
nent peace  for  which  we  long. 

In  England  there  are  factories  where 
crippled  soldiers  are  put  to  work  to  make 
ammunition  to  supply  the  armies  in  the 
field.  In  one  of  these  factories  a re- 
porter recently  found  two  men,  one  with 
a deformed  limb,  the  other  who  had  lost 
[ 129  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

an  eye.  They  fell  into  conversation. 
‘‘It  seems  a shame  to  make  things  as 
makes  cripples,”  said  the  former  sorrow- 
fully. “Sometimes  when  I think  that 
one  of  my  shells  might  twist  a German’s 
leg  off  same’s  mine,  I feel  a bit  sorry. 
When  that  happens,  I ’ave  to  ’ave  a 
read  at  a newspaper  about  poisoned 
gases.” 

“I  don’t  mind  admitting,”  said  the 
one  with  the  sightless  eye,  “that  I pray 
occasionally  that  none  of  my  shells  will 
ever  blow  a German’s  eye  out.  Under- 
stand I’m  no  less  a Britisher,  only  human. 
I know  what  it  is  to  lose  an  eye,  and  I 
can  imagine  what  it  would  be  to  lose 
two.” 

That  is  how  the  normal  civilized  man 
thinks  and  feels  before  his  mind  has 
been  inflamed  by  suspicion  and  hate. 

Now,  what  has  been  done  in  the  name 
of  national  rivalry  and  ambition  can  be 
done,  and  must  be  done,  in  the  interest 
[ 130  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

of  international  brotherhood  and  peace. 
We  must  educate  men  for  humanity.  It 
may  take  time.  It  may  take  patience. 
We  may  not  live  to  see  it.  Our  children 
may  not  live  to  see  it.  But  in  the  end  it 
will  be  done. 

What  then  are  the  resources  at  our 
command  in  this  campaign  of  educa- 
tion? That  is  our  final  question.  Do 
not  let  us  underestimate  them  because 
they  are  thus  far  disorganized  and  un- 
vocal. All  over  the  world  there  are  men 
and  women  in  increasing  numbers  who 
have  seen  the  vision  that  we  have  seen, 
of  a world  which  is  really  Christian,  a 
world  in  which  love  shall  be  the  law  of 
life,  confidence  the  inspiration  of  prog- 
ress, and  forgiveness  based  upon  the  con- 
sciousness of  common  failure  open  the 
door  from  the  dead  past  to  a new  and 
more  splendid  future.  They  are  found  in 
the  trenches  and  in  the  hospitals,  among 
[ 131  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

the  men  who  have  seen  with  their  own 
eyes  the  hatefulness  of  war  and  learned, 
as  they  could  have  learned  at  no  less 
a cost,  how  rare  and  blessed  a thing  is 
peace.  They  are  found  in  a million 
homes  among  those  women  who  are 
waking  to  a new  consciousness  not  only 
of  the  social  privileges  but  also  of  the 
social  responsibilities  of  motherhood; 
women  like  those  whose  indomitable 
optimism  makes  itself  heard  across  the 
trenches  in  such  utterances  as  the  Christ- 
mas letter  of  the  English  women  to  the 
women  of  Germany  and  Austria,  and 
the  answer  that  came  back  from  them.1 
They  are  found  in  the  ranks  of  labor 
among  men  like  those  German  Socialists 
of  Munich  who  in  the  early  months  of 
the  war  drew  up  a peace  programme  so 
fair  to  their  opponents  that  their  fellow 

1 These  letters,  with  others  of  similar  import,  have 
been  reprinted  by  the  Woman’s  Peace  Party,  in  a tract 
entitled  “A  Group  of  Letters  from  Women  of  the 
Warring  Nations.”  Chicago. 

[ 132  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 


Socialists  in  England  could  accept  it  as 
it  stood  as  their  own.1  Above  all,  they 
are  found  among  those  Christians  of  ev- 
ery name  and  of  every  land  who  have 
grown  ashamed  of  a religion  that  shelters 
itself  under  the  great  name  of  Christ  and 
is  content  to  accept  his  promise  of  indi- 
vidual salvation  while  it  turns  a deaf 
ear  to  his  call  to  go  out  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  his  gospel,  not  only  to 
every  creature  but  in  every  relationship 
of  life. 

But  we  have  other  allies  still,  allies 
of  which  as  yet  we  have  taken  too  little 
account  because  they  belong  in  part  to 
that  unseen  world  that  is  still  waiting 
to  be  born.  There  is  that  better  man 
in  men  who  sleeps  in  every  human  breast, 
waiting  for  the  voice  that  can  arouse 

1For  the  full  text  of  these  proposals  cf.  the  Labour 
Leader  for  February  4,  1915.  They  are  grouped  un- 
der three  headings,  as  follows:  1.  Peace  on  terms  that 
will  heal  fresh  wounds.  2.  Peace  on  terms  that  will  heal 
old  wounds.  3.  Peace  on  terms  that  will  give  lasting 
security. 


1 133  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

him  from  his  slumbers  and  summon  him 
to  that  real  world  for  which  he  was  made, 
and  in  which  alone  he  is  at  home,  the 
man  who  is  lover  reverent  of  women, 
father  tender  of  children,  friend  respon- 
sive to  sympathy,  patriot  loyal  to  coun- 
try, worshipper  destined  for  God.  This 
undiscovered  man,  citizen  of  Christ’s 
Kingdom  that  is  to  be,  is  waiting  to  be 
found  and  roused  and  organized  for  the 
greatest  of  all  enterprises  and  the  most 
splendid  of  all  campaigns. 

He  is  waiting  to  be  found,  did  I say? 
Nay,  he  is  here  already.  Of  all  the  mar- 
vels of  this  marvellous  time  none  has 
been  more  wonderful  than  its  revelation 
of  the  unsuspected  moral  reserves  of 
humanity.  The  virtues  that  we  had 
thought  the  prerogative  of  the  few,  cour- 
age, consecration,  self-sacrifice,  faith,  are 
found  to  be  the  common  heritage.  We 
had  heard  that  the  days  of  heroism  had 
passed  forever,  that  men  were  engrossed 
1 134  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

in  money-getting  and  money-spending, 
blind  to  spiritual  reality  and  deaf  to  the 
appeal  of  the  ideal,  and  we  have  wit- 
nessed a rebirth  of  idealism  on  a scale 
more  stupendous  than  any  that  history 
records.  We  have  seen  the  nations  give 
of  their  best  and  dearest  without  a mur- 
mur-mothers their  sons,  wives  their 
husbands,  young  men  their  lives,  parents 
their  homes.  We  have  seen  an  entire 
people  offer  its  country  on  the  altar  of 
freedom,  and  with  the  sight  there  has 
come  to  us  a new  realization  of  the  moral 
greatness  of  humanity,  and  a new  reali- 
zation of  its  immortal  destiny.  We  know 
now  what  we  had  often  been  told  but 
had  scarcely  dared  to  believe,  that  of  all 
the  powers  that  inspire  action  and  com- 
mand human  loyalty  there  is  none  com- 
parable in  the  range  of  its  influence  to 
an  ideal. 

And  if  it  be  said  that  this  is  just  the 
tragedy  and  despair  of  the  situation, 
[ 135  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

that  idealism  has  proved  so  lamentably 
false  a guide,  that  the  causes  that  have 
called  forth  loyalty  and  evoked  sacrifice 
have  been  narrow  and  selfish  causes, 
the  ideals  of  nationalism  and  of  mili- 
tarism, the  answer  is  that  this  is  true 
only  in  appearance.  It  is  because  these 
causes  have  stolen  the  garments  of  Chris- 
tianity and  masquerade  as  the  servants 
of  world-wide  brotherhood  and  peace 
that  they  have  gained  the  whole-hearted 
allegiance  of  the  peoples.  Nothing  is 
more  striking  in  the  whole  situation, 
nothing  more  full  of  hope  for  the  future, 
than  the  fact  that  the  old  glorification 
of  war  for  war’s  sake  has  been  so  largely 
discredited.  Each  nation,  as  we  have 
seen,  claims  to  be  fighting  in  self-defense; 
each  nation  declares  itself  to  be  the  ser- 
vant of  international  brotherhood  and 
peace,  not  simply  to  justify  its  claim 
against  its  opponents,  but  because  on  no 
other  ground  could  it  retain  the  alle- 

1 136  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

giance  of  its  own  citizens.  The  Christian 
virus  has  penetrated  too  far;  the  Chris- 
tian ideal  has  struck  its  roots  too  deep 
to  make  the  ethics  of  war  permanently 
satisfying  to  any  modern  people. 

This  then  is  the  great  gift  which  the 
war  has  brought  us:  this  new  revelation 
of  the  unsuspected  moral  reserves  of  hu- 
manity. Once  more  we  have  been  re- 
minded of  that  oldest  of  the  truths  of 
religion  that  man  is  not  simply  flesh  and 
blood,  but  spirit.  When  we  appeal  to 
the  ideal  in  him  we  are  dealing  with 
something  that  is  really  there;  a force 
more  potent  for  good  or  evil  than  the 
electricity  that  lights  our  streets  and 
draws  our  engines,  or  the  dynamite  by 
which  we  blast  our  way  through  the  solid 
rock. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  such  facts  as  these 
that  we  must  approach  our  great  task 
of  educating  men  for  humanity.  When 
we  contrast  what  we  are  saying  and  do- 
[ 137  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

ing  as  we  go  about  our  quiet  tasks  of 
peace,  with  what  our  brothers  are  doing 
and  bearing  at  the  front,  how  little  and 
futile  it  often  seems.  Do  not  let  us  be 
deceived.  It  is  with  the  moulders  of 
ideals  that  the  fate  of  the  future  rests. 
When  as  parents,  through  the  familiar 
discipline  of  the  home,  we  train  our  chil- 
dren in  common  action  for  an  end  be- 
yond self;  when  as  teachers,  we  enlarge 
the  range  of  our  pupils’  vision,  and  ac- 
quaint them  with  the  good  in  other  ages 
and  in  other  races  than  their  own;  above 
all,  when  as  Christians  we  unite  with  our 
fellow  Christians  of  every  land  in  wor- 
ship of  the  God  of  all  the  earth  and  con- 
secrate our  lives  to  the  tasks  of  his  King- 
dom, we  are  doing  the  most  important 
and  the  most  practical  thing  in  the 
world:  we  are  generating  the  forces  that 
will  inspire  the  armies  of  the  future. 

Among  the  French  soldiers  at  the  front 
there  are  some  poor  fellows  who  have  no 
[ 138  ] 


PROGRAMME  FOR  HUMANITY 

friends  or  relations  to  write  to  them. 
To  these  a distinguished  Frenchman  has 
addressed  a letter  which  has  been  pub- 
lished in  the  daily  press.  “What  are 
you  fighting  for?”  he  asks,  “you  who 
have  neither  wife  nor  child  nor  home  to 
defend;  for  whom  no  mother  prays  and 
no  father  waits?  I will  tell  you.  You 
are  fighting  for  the  future.  The  others 
are  fighting  for  the  past  and  for  the 
present.  You  are  fighting  for  the  French 
children  who  are  just  born,  for  those  who 
will  be  born,  that  they  may  be  free.” 

Ah,  yes,  it  is  this  love  of  the  future 
that  is  our  hope — the  future  that  we 
may  never  share,  but  in  which  we  yet 
believe.  We  have  seen  it  imperfectly, 
narrowly,  from  angles  which  bring  us 
into  conflict  with  the  vision  of  our  neigh- 
bor; but  we  have  seen  it,  and  some  day 
we  shall  see  it  more  clearly  still.  The 
little  loves  will  give  place  to  the  greater; 
the  false  patriotisms  will  be  replaced  by 
[ 139  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

the  true,  and  in  the  service  of  humanity, 
as  a whole,  all  lesser  aims  and  tasks  will 
find  their  rightful  and  satisfying  place. 


[ 140  ] 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

W e have  considered  the  challenge  which 
the  present  world  crisis  presents  to 
Christian  faith,  and  the  principles  by 
which  it  is  to  be  met.  We  have  studied 
the  Christian  programme  for  humanity. 
We  have  seen  that  Christianity  pro- 
poses to  substitute  for  the  present  sys- 
tem of  organized  selfishness  a new  social 
order,  universal  and  spiritual,  a society 
in  which  helpfulness  shall  be  the  prin- 
ciple of  action,  and  the  consciousness  of 
brotherhood  the  bond  of  union,  and  we 
have  seen  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it 
can  be  realized  in  fact,  if  all  who  believe 
in  this  ideal  co-operate  to  bring  it  about. 
It  remains  to  ask  what  our  part  is  in  this 
common  task,  and  how  it  can  best  be 
[ 141  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

performed.  What  can  we  modem  Chris- 
tians do  to  realize  our  own  ideal?  In  a 
task  so  vast  and  many-sided  where  shall 
we  begin? 

We  must  begin  where  Christ  began, 
with  the  individual.  There  is  no  substi- 
tute for  Christian  character,  and  Chris- 
tian character  cannot  be  manufactured 
by  wholesale.  It  must  be  a new  creation 
in  each  individual,  consciously  facing  the 
ideal  of  Christ,  and  consciously  making 
it  Ms  own  by  a free  act  of  choice.  Unless 
we  have  men  and  women  who  believe  in 
the  Christian  ideal  for  society  enough  to 
live  for  it,  and  if  need  be  to  die  for  it, 
society  will  never  be  Christian  in  fact. 

There  is  no  substitute,  I repeat,  for 
individual  conversion.  Public  opinion, 
that  most  potent  of  all  forces  in  our  mod- 
em world,  is  what  it  is  because  of  the 
opinion  of  the  men  and  women  who 
compose  the  public.  If  you  would  change 
it  you  must  change  them.  And  the 
l 142  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

change  must  begin,  as  all  changes  begin, 
in  persons,  in  the  contact  of  some  indi- 
vidual with  a new  ideal,  and  the  surren- 
der of  his  will  to  its  appeal.  If  we  are 
to  have  an  army,  we  must  have  officers; 
if  we  are  to  have  followers,  we  must 
have  leaders,  and  leadership  is  an  affair 
of  the  individual. 

Trace  back  any  great  social  move- 
ment you  please,  and  you  come  at  last 
to  some  individual  man  or  woman.  To 
speak  of  modern  nursing  means  to  think 
of  Florence  Nightingale.  To  mention 
United  Italy  means  to  think  of  Mazzini 
and  Garibaldi  and  Cavour.  What  were 
Protestantism  without  Luther,  or  monas- 
ticism  without  Francis  of  Assisi  and  Ig- 
natius Loyola  ? What  is  Christianity 
itself  but  the  impact  upon  the  spiritual 
life  of  mankind  of  that  supreme  person- 
ality whom  we  call  Jesus? 

But  it  is  just  as  true  that  if  you  are 
to  have  an  army  you  must  have  soldiers. 

[ 143  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

No  general  can  win  a battle  alone,  and 
so  again  we  are  brought  back  to  the  neces- 
sity of  personal  work  for  men.  It  is  not 
enough  for  one  man  and  another  to  ac- 
cept the  Christian  principle,  and  work 
for  the  Christian  end.  We  must  make 
these  principles  common  property,  and 
for  that  we  need  missionary  propaganda 
on  a scale  more  comprehensive  and  effec- 
tive than  any  the  world  has  yet  seen. 
The  work  that  the  churches  are  doing 
in  their  evangelistic  campaigns  is  work 
that  needs  to  be  done  and  must  be  done 
if  the  Christian  cause  is  to  succeed. 

One  of  the  most  surprising  features  of 
the  present  situation  has  been  the  ex- 
traordinary unanimity  of  sentiment  in 
the  different  countries  at  war.  There 
was  at  first  a disposition  to  regard  the 
war  as  having  been  forced  upon  the  differ- 
ent peoples  by  their  leaders,  and  each 
nation  flattered  itself  that  it  wras  fighting 
not  only  for  its  own  safety,  but  to  liber- 
[ 144  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

ate  the  enslaved  in  other  lands.  But 
we  see  to-day  that  this  is  in  a true  sense 
a war  of  peoples.  Only  profound  con- 
viction as  to  the  justice  of  their  cause 
could  move  the  nations  to  the  gigantic 
sacrifices  which  the  war  has  laid  upon 
them,  and  convictions  do  not  spring  up 
in  a night.  They  are  the  fruits  of  a 
process  of  education  carefully  planned 
and  long  continued.  It  is  because  day 
by  day,  year  by  year,  generation  after 
generation,  men  have  been  preaching  to 
Germans  and  Englishmen  and  Russians 
and  Frenchmen  the  greatness  of  their 
nation’s  destiny  and  the  duty  of  individ- 
ual loyalty,  that  the  sentiment  has  been 
created  which  made  each  government 
confident  of  the  nation’s  support  when 
the  crisis  came. 

If  Christianity  is  ever  to  make  itself 
felt  as  a world  power  on  a scale  as  vast 
and  with  results  as  amazing,  it  will  be 
because  of  a period  of  preparation  as 
[ 145  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


painstaking,  as  intelligent  and  as  long 
continued.  For  a Christian  society  you 
must  have  real  Christians,  and  millions 
of  them,  and  these  are  not  made  in  a 
day  or  in  a year. 

But  individual  conversions  alone,  how- 
ever many  may  be  the  individuals  con- 
verted, will  carry  us  but  a little  way. 
We  must  apply  the  consequences  of  our 
Christian  convictions  to  society.  And 
that  means  that  we  must  organize. 

At  no  point  is  the  revolution  in  our 
habits  of  thought,  which  has  been  brought 
about  by  modern  science,  more  far- 
reaching  than  in  our  conception  of  the 
nature  of  human  society.  Time  was 
when  we  thought  of  society  as  a collec- 
tion of  individual  units,  each  complete 
in  itself.  To-day  we  know  that  person- 
ality is  itself  a social  creation.  We  real- 
ize, as  it  has  never  been  possible  to  real- 
, ize  it  before,  the  extraordinary  variety 
[ 146  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

and  intimacy  of  the  ties  that  unite  in- 
dividuals one  with  another,  not  only  in 
their  economic  but  in  their  intellectual 
and  moral  life.  We  see  that  in  order  to 
influence  an  individual  effectively  it  is 
not  enough  to  appeal  to  him  directly. 
We  must  attack  his  environment  and 
change  the  forces  which  enter  into  the 
making  of  his  personality. 

And  with  this  new  insight  modern  sci- 
ence has  given  us  new  power.  It  has 
marvellously  increased  our  resources;  it 
has  multiplied  in  ways  that  stagger  the 
imagination  the  wires  that  reach  from 
one  man  to  another,  and  created  the 
machinery  that  for  the  first  time  has 
made  it  possible  to  mobilize  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  nations  and  make  millions 
of  men  act  with  the  precision  and  effec- 
tiveness of  one. 

This  is  something  new  under  the  sun. 
Here  is  a new  power  put  into  the  hands 
of  man  which  he  has  never  had  before, 
[ 147  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

a power  which  may  be  used  for  good  or 
for  evil,  for  co-operation  or  for  war. 
The  leaders  of  the  church,  trained  in 
the  habits  of  the  older  individualism, 
concerned  primarily  with  the  forces  of 
the  inner  life,  have  been  slower  to  dis- 
cover the  existence  of  this  power  than 
men  who  have  been  trained  in  another 
philosophy  and  are  working  for  other  ends. 

This  is  the  true  significance  of  what 
we  see  to-day.  We  are  witnessing  the 
mobilization  of  humanity  for  common 
action  on  a scale  and  with  an  effective- 
ness never  possible  before.  It  is  true 
that  the  purpose  of  this  mobilization  is 
destruction,  and  its  inspiration  distrust, 
suspicion,  and  fear.  But  the  same  forces 
which  have  been  utilized  by  statesmen 
and  diplomats  to  serve  their  narrow  ends 
are  available  for  nobler  uses  if  only  we 
can  gain  access  to  the  springs  of  action 
and  win  the  nations  to  loyalty  to  a higher 
and  more  inclusive  ideal. 

[ 148  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

Thank  God,  we  are  beginning  to  learn 
this  lesson.  Even  before  the  war  came 
there  were  many  Christians  who  realized 
the  inadequacy  of  the  older  individual- 
istic methods,  and  were  working  for 
closer  and  more  effective  co-operation  be- 
tween the  churches.  These  efforts  have 
already  begun  to  bear  fruit  in  federa- 
tions, councils,  and  continuation  com- 
mittees. We  are  mapping  out  the  field 
to  be  occupied,  cataloguing  the  resources 
at  our  disposal,  laying  plans,  not  simply 
for  the  present  but  for  the  longer  future. 
And  this  is  a great  step  forward. 

For  one  thing  we  are  beginning  to 
deal  with  the  social  questions  which  lie 
at  our  own  door,  questions  like  the  drink 
problem,  the  problem  of  prostitution, 
the  industrial  problem  in  its  various 
phases.  We  see  that  these  are  matters 
which  concern  us  as  Christians,  for  which 
we  cannot  avoid  responsibility  even  if 
we  would.  We  are  no  longer  content  to 

[ 149  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

preach  or  to  listen  to  the  gospel  on 
Sunday  while  our  lives  during  the  week 
give  the  lie  to  what  we  say  or  hear.  We 
feel  that  in  Christian  sentiment  we  pos- 
sess a power  which  might  be  used  to 
make  the  world  over  if  only  it  could  be 
properly  unified  and  directed. 

This  movement  toward  a social  ap- 
plication of  the  gospel  is  world-wide. 
Wherever  you  go  you  will  find  that 
Christians  are  aroused  to  the  social  need 
and  are  beginning  to  turn  their  convic- 
tions into  action. 

When  I was  in  Osaka1  in  April,  1916, 
I found  the  whole  city  aroused  over 
the  proposal  to  establish  a vice  quarter 
in  the  neighborhood  of  some  of  the  more 
important  schools.  Public  meetings  were 
called  in  protest,  and  the  better  senti- 
ment of  the  community  organized  so  as 
to  make  the  protest  effective. 

1 A great  industrial  centre  on  the  Inland  Sea,  which 
has  been  called  the  Pittsburgh  of  Japan. 

[ 150  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 


It  was  the  same  in  China.  In  Hang- 
chow there  are  but  eight  hundred  Chris- 
tians, but  when  the  government  proposed 
to  set  apart  a quarter  for  public  vice  in 
the  outskirts  of  the  city  they  conducted 
a campaign  so  effective  that  the  plan 
had  to  be  abandoned,  and  I was  shown 
with  pride  the  deserted  buildings  that 
were  the  convincing  demonstration  of 
the  power  of  Christian  sentiment  when 
organized  for  the  common  good. 

This  is  as  it  should  be.  In  the  social 
application  of  the  gospel  the  place  to 
begin  is  in  my  relations  to  my  neigh- 
bor across  the  street.  Unless  we  can 
make  our  neighborhood  Christian  we 
cannot  have  a Christian  city.  Unless 
we  can  Christianize  our  city,  we  cannot 
hope  to  have  a Christian  country.  Un- 
less we  can  Christianize  our  country  we 
must  abandon  the  hope  of  Christianizing 
the  world. 

This  opens  up  a wide  field  at  which 
[ 151  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

we  can  only  glance.  How  much  it  means 
to  make  a Christian  community  those  of 
us  who  have  tried  to  attack  even  a single 
phase  of  the  social  problem  in  a practical 
way  know  only  too  well.  Whether  it  be 
the  drink  problem  or  the  vice  problem, 
or  the  problem  of  sanitation,  or  the  prob- 
lem of  unemployment,  we  find  that  we 
are  dealing  with  influences  which  reach 
beyond  the  immediate  environment  and 
causes  that  had  their  origin  generations 
before  we  were  born.  To  deal  with  one 
effectively  we  must  attack  the  others 
also,  and  before  we  realize  it  we  find 
that  our  attempt  to  clean  up  our  own 
back  yard  commits  us  to  a programme  of 
social  reconstruction  on  the  most  com- 
prehensive scale. 

This  is  the  real  root  of  our  present 
difficulty.  If  we  want  to  understand 
the  causes  of  the  present  international 
crisis  we  must  seek  our  answer  at  home 
and  not  abroad.  It  is  because  our  own 
[ 152  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

social  system  is  so  largely  selfish  and  un- 
christian that  it  is  so  difficult  to  persuade 
men  to  believe  that  altruism  is  feasible 
on  a large  scale.  The  man  who  in  his 
domestic  relations  acts  on  the  principle 
that  business  is  business,  is  not  likely 
to  be  a believer  in  the  efficacy  of  love 
as  a solution  of  international  difficul- 
ties. 

While  these  pages  were  being  written 
there  was  in  progress  in  one  of  the  largest 
cities  of  the  United  States  a labor  dis- 
pute which  involved  many  thousands  of 
persons.  The  industry  which  was  af- 
fected was  one  in  which  the  rate  of  wages 
was  comparatively  low,  and  the  time  of 
employment  irregular.  After  years  of 
contention  and  bitterness  both  employers 
and  workers  had  agreed  upon  a plan  of 
operation  which  provided  a regular 
method  for  dealing  with  questions  in 
dispute.  Representatives  of  both  parties 
met  to  consider  the  matter  in  contro- 
1 153  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

versy,  and  when  they  were  unable  to 
agree  the  subject  was  referred  to  a 
committee  of  arbitration  for  final  de- 
cision. Under  this  agreement  the  in- 
dustry had  been  operating  peacefully  for 
a number  of  years.  But  a few  months 
ago  when  the  committee  of  arbitration 
decided  a case  adversely  to  the  conten- 
tion of  the  employers,  they  refused  to 
accept  the  decision,  repudiated  their 
agreement,  and  in  order  to  enforce  com- 
pliance with  their  will  declared  a lockout 
in  the  dull  season  of  the  year,  relying 
upon  hunger  to  bring  the  workers  to 
their  terms. 

As  to  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  im- 
mediate matter  in  dispute  the  present 
writer  is  not  competent  to  speak.  But 
from  the  published  utterances  of  both 
sides  to  the  dispute,  one  principle  clearly 
emerges  which  bears  directly  upon  the 
subject  of  our  present  interest.  The 
workers  contended  for  some  independent 
[ 154  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

tribunal  to  which  disputes  should  be  re- 
ferred for  final  adjudication.  The  em- 
ployers refused  to  concede  this.  They 
claimed  the  right  to  manage  their  own 
business  to  suit  themselves  without  in- 
terference or  dictation  from  outside.  If 
the  workers  did  not  like  their  action  they 
had  their  remedy  at  hand;  let  them 
strike.  In  other  words,  the  employers 
denied  the  existence  of  any  paramount 
social  obligation.  They  were  individual- 
ists out  and  out,  and  they  accepted  with- 
out flinching  the  consequence  of  individ- 
ualism, which  is  war.  What  difference, 
one  may  well  ask,  is  there  in  principle 
between  the  attitude  of  these  employers 
and  their  sympathizers  and  that  of  the 
philosophers  and  statesmen  whose  un- 
willingness to  recognize  any  higher  sov- 
ereignty than  the  individual  state  makes 
war  the  final  arbiter  in  disputes  be- 
tween nations?  If  there  is  not  con- 
science enough  in  society  to  deal  with 
[ 155  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


the  lesser  evil,  what  hope  is  there  of  our 
being  able  to  master  the  greater  ? 

But,  thank  God,  there  is  another  side 
to  the  matter.  If  every  failure  to  live 
out  Christ’s  principles  at  home  makes 
it  more  difficult  to  live  them  out  abroad, 
the  converse  also  is  true.  Every  success 
at  home  makes  success  abroad  seem  easier 
and  more  credible.  The  man  who  has 
tried  arbitration  in  his  business  and  found 
that  it  succeeds  will  be  the  first  to  be- 
lieve in  the  possibility  of  its  application 
to  international  affairs.  The  community 
which  has  found  it  possible  to  run  a city 
for  the  benefit  of  all,  and  not  simply  the 
private  gain  of  the  few,  will  not  easily 
despair  of  the  world. 

Twenty-two  years  ago  New  York  City 
was  in  the  grip  of  a corrupt  political 
organization  known  as  Tammany  Hall. 
Things  had  reached  such  a pass  that 
decent  men  were  ashamed  of  the  city, 
and  yet  the  power  of  the  organization 
l 156  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 


was  so  great  that  it  seemed  hopeless  to 
try  to  break  it. 

At  this  juncture  it  occurred  to  some 
public-spirited  citizens  to  attack  the 
problem  piecemeal.  They  founded  good- 
government  clubs  in  the  different  quar- 
ters of  the  city,  and  began  to  organize 
their  neighbors  in  each  district  for  the 
study  of  local  conditions.  In  the  new 
interest  thus  aroused,  and  the  new  ac- 
quaintances formed,  they  soon  found 
that  they  possessed  an  instrument  of  no 
small  political  power.  And  it  was  these 
good-government  clubs,  co-operating  in  a 
city-wide  campaign,  which  in  1894  suc- 
ceeded finally  in  defeating  Tammany 
Hall  and  installing  a reform  government 
in  power. 

It  is  an  example  which  may  well  en- 
courage us  in  our  plans  for  our  future 
activity  as  Christians.  When  we  con- 
template the  magnitude  of  the  task  be- 
fore us  we  are  appalled  by  its  difficulty 
[ 157  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

and  its  complexity.  Who  are  we,  we 
ask,  to  think  of  Christianizing  the  world  ? 
But  we  do  not  have  to  do  it  all  at  once. 
Our  responsibility  is  only  for  that  part 
of  the  task  which  lies  in  our  immediate 
environment,  and  is  within  the  compass 
of  our  strength.  But  we  have  this  added 
encouragement  in  our  labor,  that  what- 
ever success  we  may  gain  in  our  par- 
ticular field,  will  be  so  much  to  the 
general  good.  Any  triumph  of  the  Chris- 
tian principle  anywhere  is  so  much  new 
reason  for  faith  in  its  applicability  every- 
where. 

These  principles  may  help  us  to  think 
our  way  through  some  of  the  practical 
problems  which  face  us  in  the  immediate 
future.  They  have  their  bearing,  for 
example,  upon  the  question  of  national 
loyalty.  As  Christians  we  cannot  ad- 
mit the  nationalist’s  contention  that  the 
nation  is  the  final  unit,  and  that  no  hu- 
[ 158  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

manitarian  considerations  should  be  al- 
lowed to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  national 
interest.  Are  we  therefore  obliged  to 
conclude  that  the  nation  has  no  rightful 
claim  upon  our  allegiance,  and  that  in 
the  alleged  interest  of  human  brother- 
hood we  must  discard  patriotism  alto- 
gether ? 

To  do  this  would  be  as  unreasonable 
as  to  conclude  that  because  the  law  of 
Christ  condemns  selfishness  in  the  indi- 
vidual, and  bids  us  keep  ever  in  mind 
our  relations  to  the  larger  unity  we  call 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  individual  has 
no  independent  value  for  God,  and  the 
Christian  is  under  no  obligation  to  de- 
velop his  own  personality?  Individual- 
ism, whether  in  nations  or  in  persons,  is 
the  perversion  of  a good.  It  is  self -de- 
velopment run  to  seed.  But  self-devel- 
opment has  its  place  in  the  catalogue  of 
Christian  virtues.  It  is  the  way  we 
make  ourselves  strong  for  service. 

[ 159  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

We  have  learned  this  in  the  case  of  the 
individual.  We  know  that  in  our  per- 
sonal life  we  are  not  shut  up  to  the  choice 
between  selfishness  and  suicide.  There  is 
a third  alternative  open  to  the  Christian, 
and  that  is  self-development  for  social 
service.  The  more  I have,  the  better  I 
am,  the  stronger  I become,  the  more  I 
have  to  give.  The  same  law  holds  good 
in  the  life  of  the  state.  Patriotism  is 
God’s  way  of  training  individuals  for  com- 
mon action  for  unselfish  ends.  With- 
out national  self-development  there  can 
be  no  effective  international  service. 

But  it  is  easier  to  admit  this  in  theory 
than  to  follow  out  its  implications  in 
practice.  What  does  it  mean  for  one 
nation  to  serve  another?  In  what  spe- 
cific ways  can  this  Christian  duty  be  ful- 
filled? 

There  are  some  who  interpret  service 
in  terms  of  charity.  The  rich  nation 
ought  to  share  its  wealth  with  the  na- 
[ 160  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

tions  that  are  poorer;  the  more  advanced 
with  the  more  backward ; the  nation  that 
has  escaped  the  ravages  of  war  with 
those  that  have  experienced  its  devas- 
tating effects. 

This  view  of  Christian  duty  has  re- 
cently been  put  before  the  American 
people  in  the  form  of  a definite  proposal. 
Let  Congress  at  the  end  of  the  war  ap- 
propriate five  hundred  million  dollars  to 
be  used  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers  in 
the  different  countries  at  war,  and  for 
the  reconstruction  of  the  cities  which 
have  been  destroyed.  Is  it  conceivable, 
we  are  asked,  that  such  a proposal  would 
not  be  gratefully  received?  Could  we 
imagine  any  action  which  could  give 
more  convincing  evidence  of  the  Chris- 
tian spirit  or  prove  a more  effective  agent 
in  promoting  good-will  between  nations? 

With  the  spirit  which  inspires  this 
proposal  one  can  have  only  sympathy. 
There  is  a place  for  charity  in  the  Chris- 
[ 161  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

tian  catalogue  of  virtues,  and  where  suf- 
fering has  been  colossal  the  scale  of  char- 
ity should  be  correspondingly  great.  But 
charity  alone  is  not  enough.  It  has  not 
proved  enough  in  the  relations  between 
individuals.  We  have  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  it  will  prove  enough  in  the  re- 
lations between  nations. 

There  was  a time  not  so  long  ago  when 
individual  duty  was  conceived  in  terms 
of  charity.  Almsgiving  was  the  Chris- 
tian duty  par  excellence.  The  rich  man 
gave  of  his  superabundance  to  the  poor 
man,  and  the  man  of  moderate  means 
to  the  man  who  had  less,  and  when  he 
had  done  this  he  conceived  that  he  had 
done  all  that  he  needed  to  do. 

But  we  are  coming  to  see  that  this  is 
a wholly  inadequate  conception  of  Chris- 
tian ethics.  It  is  not  alms  that  man 
needs  but  justice;  not  the  alleviation  of 
poverty  but  its  removal.  What  we  ask 
of  the  rich  man  now  is  not  that  he 
[ 162  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

should  be  kind  to  his  dependents,  but 
that  he  should  co-operate  with  them  in 
bringing  about  a social  order  in  which 
they  shall  no  longer  be  dependent.  More 
precious  than  gold,  more  to  be  desired 
than  comfort,  is  personal  self-respect, 
and  personal  self-respect  is  difficult  to 
the  man  whose  very  existence  is  depen- 
dent upon  the  bounty  of  another.  As 
has  been  well  said:  “He  who  controls 
the  sources  of  a man’s  subsistence,  in 
effect  controls  his  will.” 

What  is  true  of  individuals  is  true  also 
of  nations.  What  one  nation  asks  of 
another  is  not  charity  but  justice.  It  is 
recognition  of  its  rightful  place  in  the 
family  of  the  nations  and  the  granting, 
not  as  a matter  of  condescension  but  as 
a right,  of  the  conditions  which  are  neces- 
sary to  enable  it  to  fill  that  place  with 
self-respect.  If  we  wish  really  to  justify 
our  claim  to  be  a Christian  nation,  we 
cannot  stop  with  the  offer  of  charity, 
[ 163  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

however  proper  that  may  be;  we  must 
be  willing  to  co-operate  with  other  na- 
tions in  bringing  about  such  changes  in 
the  social  order  as  shall  make  the  op- 
pression of  the  weak  by  the  strong  for- 
ever impossible. 

This  would  involve  a change  of  policy 
so  radical  that  it  is  doubtful  if  as  yet 
many  even  among  Christians  have  ven- 
tured seriously  to  contemplate  it.  It 
would  mean  the  abandonment  once  for 
all  of  the  maxim  that  the  policy  of  any 
country  can  be  determined  solely  by  the 
welfare  of  its  own  citizens.  It  would 
mean  the  application  of  the  Christian 
principle  of  trusteeship  to  natural  re- 
sources not  simply  on  the  national  scale 
now  contemplated  by  our  advocates  of 
conservation,  but  in  our  international  re- 
lations. It  would  mean  the  rewriting  of 
our  tariffs  and  immigration  acts  from 
the  point  of  view  not  simply  of  national 
advantage  but  of  world  need.  It  would 
[ 164  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

mean,  in  a word,  doing  for  tlie  world  at 
large  what  no  single  country  has  yet 
succeeded  in  doing  for  its  own  people, 
namely,  making  them  act  and  feel  as  if 
they  were  really  one. 

I say  feel  as  well  as  act,  for  in  this 
matter  of  social  justice  feeling  counts  for 
quite  as  much  as  action.  Why  is  it  that 
within  the  family  co-operation  is  possible 
between  strong  and  weak  on  a basis  of 
mutual  self-respect?  It  is  because  they 
feel  their  common  unity.  Why  is  it 
that  to-day  Canada  and  Australia  and 
New  Zealand  are  sending  the  best  of 
their  sons  to  die  for  England  when  they 
were  free  to  hold  aloof  if  they  would? 
It  is  because  they  feel  their  oneness 
with  the  mother  country.  Why  is  it 
that  England  herself  is  co-operating  with 
Russia  and  France,  her  ancient  enemies, 
spending  men  and  money  in  support  of 
peoples  whom  a generation  ago  she  re- 
garded with  distrust  and  fear?  Again 
I 165  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

it  is  because  she  has  come  to  feel  that  in 
the  interests  which  count  for  most  they 
are  really  one.  If  we  are  ever  to  change 
our  present  policy  of  national  selfishness 
for  one  of  brotherly  co-operation  with 
other  nations  it  will  be  because  we  have 
first  come  to  feel  toward  those  nations 
as  brothers. 

This  does  not  mean  that  in  our  national 
policy  there  will  be  no  place  for  tariffs 
or  immigration  acts;  but  it  means  that 
the  theory  on  which  they  are  based  will 
be  altered.  Where  peoples  represent  dif- 
ferent types  of  civilization,  as  in  the  case 
of  America  and  Japan,  unrestricted  immi- 
gration may  prove  an  evil  for  both.  But 
if  so  the  restriction  will  be  based  upon 
grounds  of  mutual  advantage  and  car- 
ried out  in  a way  to  conserve  the  self- 
respect  of  both  parties.  So  it  may 
prove  for  the  advantage  of  all  the  world 
that  those  countries  which  in  the  upward 
march  of  civilization  have  attained  a 
[ 166  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

higher  standard  of  living  should  protect 
themselves  by  tariffs  against  the  com- 
petition which  would  drag  them  down 
without  uplifting  their  competitors.  But 
here  again,  if  this  be  the  case,  the  con- 
straining motive  for  the  Christian  nation 
will  be  the  advancement  of  the  whole 
rather  than  the  advantage  of  a part. 

The  same  principles  apply  to  the  treat- 
ment of  dependent  peoples.  It  is  ab- 
surd to  treat  savage  races  as  though 
they  were  on  an  equality  with  those 
which  have  been  trained  for  centuries 
in  the  school  of  civilization.  Such  races 
are  children,  and  must  be  treated  as 
such;  but  they  are  children  who  will 
grow  up,  and  the  nation  which  aspires 
to  be  really  Christian  will  not  forget  this 
fact.  It  will  teach  them  the  things  they 
need  to  know  in  order  to  walk  alone.  It 
will  not  allow  unscrupulous  exploiters  to 
appropriate  the  natural  resources  which 
are  necessary  for  their  development  even 

1 167  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


if  the  exploitation  bring  temporary  ad- 
vantage to  itself.  It  will  so  act  that  when 
the  child  grows  up  he  will  not  find  him- 
self robbed  of  his  patrimony. 

Such  a change  of  policy  would  have 
far-reaching  consequences.  It  would  not 
only  benefit  the  countries  immediately 
concerned;  it  would  contribute  power- 
fully to  peace  among  the  nations;  it 
would  remove  one  of  the  chief  causes 
which  have  produced  war  in  the  past, 
and  hasten  the  time  when  the  conscious- 
ness of  unity  which  now  obtains  between 
certain  groups  of  nations  shall  be  ex- 
tended to  humanity  as  a whole. 

Will  you  think  me  bold  if  I venture 
upon  a single  concrete  illustration?  I 
have  just  come  from  China,  that  great 
country  across  the  Yellow  Sea  which  is 
now  passing  through  such  a momentous 
period  in  its  national  history,  and  every- 
where I found  men  asking  what  was  to 
be  Japan’s  attitude  toward  its  neighbor 
[ 168  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

in  this  crisis  of  its  history.  It  is  not  my 
purpose  to  speak  of  what  has  happened 
in  the  past,  still  less  to  give  counsel  as 
to  what  Japan  should  do  in  the  immediate 
future.  But  I may  without  impropriety 
be  permitted  as  a moral  teacher  to  point 
out  the  alternative  possibilities  which  the 
situation  holds  in  solution,  and  to  call 
attention  to  their  bearing  upon  the  larger 
world  situation  of  which  we  have  been 
speaking.  One  is  to  follow  the  policy 
of  exploitation  which,  with  a few  hon- 
orable exceptions,  has  been  character- 
istic of  European  diplomacy  in  the  cen- 
turies which  have  passed;  to  secure  such 
immediate  advantages  as  may  be  gained 
from  China’s  distress,  peaceably  if  pos- 
sible, but  if  need  be  by  force,  regardless 
of  the  susceptibility  of  the  nation  in 
question,  and  in  complete  indifference 
to  what  may  be  for  its  national  advan- 
tage in  the  longer  future.  It  is  the  policy 
of  the  robbers  to  whom  Jesus  referred 
[ 169  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


in  the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan, 
who  finding  a traveller  upon  the  Jericho 
road  set  upon  him  in  his  weakness,  robbed 
him  of  his  possessions,  and  departed  leav- 
ing him  half-dead. 

This  is  one  of  the  things  that  Japan 
might  do  in  China,  and  if  she  did  it  she 
would  do  only  what  European  nations, 
calling  themselves  Christian,  have  done 
before.  But  she  would  miss  her  great 
opportunity,  and  surrender  the  leader- 
ship of  civilization  to  some  other  nation 
more  far-sighted  and  more  courageous 
than  herself. 

The  other  possibility  is  that  of  friendly 
co-operation  and  brotherhood,  a policy 
which  should  frankly  recognize  the  right 
of  the  Chinese  to  the  same  national 
self-development  of  which  Japan  offers 
so  conspicuous  an  example,  and  which 
should  seek  to  co-operate  in  every  pos- 
sible way  with  the  men  in  China  (and 
there  are  such  men,  not  a few)  who  are 
seeking  in  a spirit  of  patriotism  a solution 
[ 170  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

for  their  national  ills.  It  is,  in  a word, 
the  policy  of  the  good  Samaritan  who 
seeing  a man  wounded,  bound  up  his 
wounds  and  put  him  in  an  inn;  but  mark 
this  well,  as  soon  as  he  was  well  enough 
to  stand,  left  him  free  to  take  his  own 
way  without  dictation  and  hindrance. 
Which  policy,  think  you,  will  in  the  long 
run  prove  most  to  Japan’s  interest, 
the  policy  of  exploitation  or  the  policy 
of  friendship?  Which  will  bind  China 
closest  to  Japan  and  prove  the  source 
of  greatest  strength  in  years  to  come? 
Unless  all  past  experience  is  deceptive, 
friendship  pays  best  in  the  long  run. 
You  may  hold  a man  down  when  he  is 
weak,  but  when  he  is  strong  he  will  do 
the  same  to  you;  but  help  a man  up 
when  he  is  down,  and  when  you  are  in 
need  you  will  find  him  your  helper.  In 
our  personal  relations  we  have  found  this 
true;  we  have  yet  to  prove  it  true  in  the 
relations  of  nations. 

I have  taken  an  illustration  from  Jap- 
[ 171  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

anese  contemporary  history  because  I 
am  speaking  to  Japanese;  but  I might 
have  applied  the  principle  to  my  own 
country  with  equal  appropriateness  and 
with  equal  force.  I might  have  spoken 
of  the  possibilities  which  face  the  Ameri- 
can people  in  dealing  with  their  neigh- 
bor to  the  south.  Into  the  perplexing 
questions  raised  by  the  present  Mexican 
situation  this  is  not  the  place  to  go. 
But  distinct  from  the  question  of  the 
specific  things  to  be  done  and  still  more 
important  is  the  question  of  the  spirit 
which  should  inspire  the  action.  What 
shall  determine  the  duty  of  the  United 
States  to  Mexico,  the  advantage  of  our 
own  nation  or  the  welfare  of  Mexico? 
When  we  have  secured  the  safety  of  our 
own  borders  and  protection  for  our  own 
citizens  we  shall  have  taken  only  the 
first  step  in  our  duty  as  a Christian  na- 
tion. The  question  will  still  remain  how 
we  can  best  help  Mexico  to  realize  her 
[ 172  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

own  destiny  among  the  nations,  to  right 
the  wrongs  under  which  so  many  of  her 
own  people  now  suffer,  to  develop  her 
undeveloped  resources,  to  educate  her 
uneducated  masses,  and  so  to  enter  upon 
the  path  of  national  independence  and 
self-respect  which  shall  fit  her  to  enter 
on  equal  terms  into  the  family  of  the 
nations. 

For  the  cultivation  of  such  a spirit  it 
is  our  duty  as  Christians  to  work.  It 
will  not  prove  an  easy  task.  Repentance 
is  never  easy,  whether  in  a nation  or  in 
an  individual,  and  repentance  we  must 
have  before  improvement  is  possible. 
When  it  comes  to  questions  of  national 
policy  no  nation  can  afford  to  say  to 
another:  “I  am  holier  than  thou.” 

I do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  are 
no  differences  in  degrees  of  guilt.  I do 
not  mean  that  in  such  a world  crisis  as 
we  face  to-day  there  are  no  immediate 
moral  issues  between  which  we  must 
[ 173  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

choose.  But  I do  say  that  when  we 
take  the  long  look  (and  I conceive  that 
to  be  a Christian  means  to  take  the  long 
look  and  not  the  short  one,  to  see  the 
things  of  time  in  the  light  of  the  eternal) 
— I say  when  we  take  the  long  look  and 
follow  back  the  present  situation  to  its 
remoter  causes,  we  are  led  to  a story 
of  selfish  exploitation  and  conscienceless 
Cruelty  in  which  every  one  of  the  nations, 
without  exception,  is  to  a greater  or  less 
degree  involved.  There  is  not  one  who 
can  say:  “I  am  blameless.”  To  all  alike 
the  call  comes  to  national  repentance 
and  national  reformation.  Whether  we 
be  Japanese,  or  English,  or  Russian,  or 
French,  or  German,  or  American,  each  of 
us  faces  the  same  choice  between  two 
alternatives — the  policy  of  national  self- 
ishness and  the  policy  of  national  ser- 
vice. For  each  the  choice  will  have  far- 
reaching  consequences,  not  only  for  its 
own  life  but  for  the  life  of  the  world. 

[ 174  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

Another  vexed  question  upon  which 
our  discussion  sheds  light  is  pacifism. 
Here,  too,  we  seem  to  find  ourselves  be- 
tween the  horns  of  a dilemma.  On  the 
one  hand  is  militarism  with  its  demand 
for  armaments;  on  the  other  is  pacifism 
with  its  denunciation  of  war.  One  tells 
us  that  war  is  a permanent  human  neces- 
sity; the  other  that  it  is  the  sin  of  sins. 

At  first  sight,  indeed,  the  pacifist  posi- 
tion seems  peculiarly  appealing.  It  pre- 
sents us  a plain  question  of  duty,  a sim- 
ple choice  between  right  and  wrong.  If 
God,  as  we  know,  is  love,  asks  the  pacifist, 
how  can  it  be  right  to  fight  ? Above  all, 
how  can  it  be  right  to  kill?  Christ,  he 
tells  us,  came  to  save  life,  not  to  destroy, 
and  the  true  Christian  will  follow  him  in 
his  uncompromising  hostility  to  war  in 
every  form.  Let  others  do  what  they 
will,  he  will  not  fight.  Better  suffer  evil 
than  do  it.  Better  be  killed  than  kill. 
And  what  is  true  of  the  individual,  he 
[ 175  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


insists,  is  true  of  the  state.  Better  to 
perish  as  a nation  than  to  survive  at 
the  cost  of  the  violation  of  the  law  of 
love. 

But  further  analysis  shows  that  the 
problem  is  not  so  simple.  If  love  and 
non-resistance  were  synonyms  pacifists 
would  be  in  the  right,  but  it  is  not  clear 
that  this  is  true.  To  refrain  from  fight- 
ing when  others  than  myself  are  con- 
cerned may  be  the  part  of  selfishness 
rather  than  of  courage.  Had  Belgium 
not  resisted  Germany,  it  might  have  been 
better  for  Belgium,  but  what  would  have 
been  the  consequences  for  France  ? This 
is  a situation  in  which  the  logic  of  paci- 
fism affords  no  clear  guidance. 

The  difficulty  of  the  pacifist  position 
becomes  still  more  apparent  when  we 
consider  the  case  of  dependent  or  sub- 
ject peoples.  What  shall  we  say  of  a 
nation  whose  rulers  deliberately  adopt 
a policy  of  extermination,  as  Turkey  did 
[ 176  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

at  the  time  of  the  Bulgarian  massacres, 
and  is  doing  to-day  with  the  Armenians  ? 
What  shall  we  say  when  Mohammedan 
slave-traders  decimate  Africa  and  leave 
the  marks  of  their  ruthless  progress  in 
tracks  of  blood  from  sea  to  sea?  Have 
civilized  nations  no  responsibility  in  such 
a case  as  this?  May  force  not  be  used 
to  prevent  such  outrages  or  render  their 
repetition  in  the  future  impossible  ? 

And  what  of  those  cases  where  a great 
principle  is  at  stake,  such  as  was  involved 
in  our  own  war  of  independence,  or  in 
the  struggle  for  a united  Italy?  Shall 
we  condemn  Washington  and  Mazzini 
as  unchristian  because  when  peaceable 
means  had  been  tried  in  vain  they  turned 
to  the  sword  as  the  last  resort?  Shall 
we  say  that  Lincoln  was  no  Christian 
when  he  answered  the  gun  fired  on  Sum- 
ter with  his  call  for  volunteers?  To  do 
this  would  be  to  unwrite  some  of  the 
noblest  pages  of  human  history  and  rob 
[ 177  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


our  children  of  examples  by  which  our 
own  lives  have  been  inspired. 

No  doubt  war  in  itself  settles  nothing 
finally.  It  can  at  most  clear  the  way  for 
the  spiritual  influences  to  which  the  future 
belongs,  but  that  it  has  sometimes  done 
this  seems  plain,  and  that  the  same  re- 
sult could  have  been  achieved  in  any 
other  way  under  the  conditions  which 
then  existed  is  yet  to  be  proved. 

The  problem  here  is  of  a piece  with 
the  larger  problem  which  meets  us  when- 
ever we  try  to  apply  an  absolute  ideal  to 
a progressive  society.  Progress  means 
gradual  change  from  the  less  to  the  more 
perfect,  a change  in  which  each  particular 
step  is  to  be  judged  in  its  bearing  upon 
all  the  others.  In  most  phases  of  the 
social  problem  we  recognize  this  and  act 
accordingly.  We  see  that  in  organized 
society  compromise  of  some  sort  is  in- 
evitable, and  adopt  that  course  of  action 
which,  on  the  whole,  seems  to  lead  us 
[ 178  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

most  surely  and  most  directly  to  the  de- 
sired end.  Pacifists  accept  the  princi- 
ple of  compromise  in  other  aspects  of 
the  social  life,  but  in  this  one  particular 
they  make  an  exception.  To  war,  and 
to  war  alone,  they  apply  the  absolute 
standard.  They  act  themselves  and  ex- 
pect others  to  act  as  if  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  for  which  they  like  other  lovers  of 
their  kind  are  working,  were  realized  in 
fact. 

I would  speak  with  the  greatest  re- 
spect of  those  who  take  this  position. 
Among  their  ranks  are  some  of  the 
bravest  and  some  of  the  most  unselfish 
of  men.  The  taunt  that  the  pacifist  is 
a weakling  or  a coward  springs  either 
from  ignorance  or  from  motives  less 
worthy.  Courage  is  no  less  courage  when 
it  braves  public  opinion  than  when  it 
faces  bullets.  And  the  world  is  better 
to-day,  and  the  outlook  for  the  future 
more  hopeful  because  in  every  country 
[ 179  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

there  is  a little  group  which  in  the  name 
of  Christ  has  refused  to  compromise  with 
conscience  even  though  refusal  mean  per- 
sonal misunderstanding  and  social  ostra- 
cism. 

Nevertheless  the  fact  remains  that  for 
most  Christians  the  arguments  of  the 
pacifist  have  not  proved  convincing. 
To  them  the  war  has  come  as  a clear  call 
of  duty,  and  in  giving  their  lives  to  the 
service  of  their  country  they  have  found 
the  satisfaction  and  peace  which  are  the 
natural  results  of  willing  sacrifice  to  a 
cause  beyond  self.  To  discredit  such  a 
sacrifice  or  belittle  the  motive  which  in- 
spired it  is  to  act  unintelligently.  Rather 
should  we  welcome  this  spirit  wherever 
it  is  found,  and  see  in  it  a foretaste  of 
the  greater  loyalty  which  is  some  day 
to  unite  all  the  peoples  in  the  service  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God. 

But  if  we  cannot  see  our  way  clear  to 
accept  the  pacifist  position,  it  does  not 
[ 180  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

mean  that  we  are  committed  to  milita- 
rism. Here  again  there  is  a third  alterna- 
tive possible.  A nation  may  arm  in  the 
interests  of  peace.  Strong  enough  itself 
to  repel  invasion,  it  may  show  such  fair- 
ness in  its  international  relations  and 
such  trust  in  the  willingness  of  other  na- 
tions to  meet  it  on  the  plane  of  justice 
and  reason  that  the  suspicion  and  fear 
which  lead  to  war  may  be  repelled,  and 
the  new  era  of  internationalism  with 
its  accompaniments  in  disarmament 
and  world  organization  may  be  ushered 
in. 

The  difficulty  has  been  that  in  the  past 
military  preparedness  has  been  accompa- 
nied by  no  correspondingly  strong  move- 
ment for  the  peaceful  adjustment  of  dis- 
putes between  nations.  To  arm  for 
peace  while  you  maintain  unimpaired 
the  causes  which  produce  wars  is  to 
involve  yourself  in  a contradiction  in 
terms.  There  are  more  ways  than  one 
[ 181  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

to  wage  war,  and  tariffs  and  immigration 
acts  may  be  as  fruitful  a cause  of  mis- 
understanding between  nations  as  Krupp 
guns  and  submarines.  Unite  the  two 
and  the  result  is  inevitable.  National 
armament  in  the  hands  of  nationalistic 
diplomacy  can  have  but  one  issue.  It 
spells  war  and  only  war. 

If  then  we  are  to  rescue  civilization 
from  the  impasse  into  which  it  has  been 
brought  by  the  present  system  of  inter- 
national relations  we  must  put  a new 
meaning  into  the  concept  of  prepared- 
ness. We  must  challenge  the  right  of 
the  militarist  to  claim  this  great  word  for 
his  own.  Those  who  argue  for  national 
service  are  quite  in  the  right,  but  is  there 
no  way  to  serve  but  to  fight?  Surely 
he  serves  his  country  who  removes  the 
causes  which  threaten  her  peace  as  truly 
as  he  who  fights  for  her  when  the  threat 
has  become  a reality.  The  teacher  who 
interprets  to  his  countrymen  the  higher 
[ 182  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

aspirations  of  men  of  other  lands,  the 
economist  who  exposes  the  fallacy  of  the 
policy  of  national  exclusion,  the  lawyer 
who  devises  the  machinery  for  the  peace- 
ful settlement  of  international  disputes, 
the  minister  who  reminds  men  of  their 
common  relation  to  a common  father; 
these,  too,  as  well  as  the  soldier  and  the 
sailor,  are  national  servants,  preparing 
their  country  to  meet  the  dangers  to 
which  without  their  help  it  would  be  ex- 
posed. The  difficulty  has  been  that  we 
have  thus  far  left  their  work  so  largely  to 
their  own  initiative.  We  have  organized 
our  armies  and  our  navies  and  equipped 
them  with  all  the  resources  of  modem 
science.  We  have  left  our  professors  and 
our  publicists  and  our  economists  and 
our  moralists  to  deal  with  their  greater 
responsibilities  in  isolation.  We  have 
perpetuated  in  this  most  important  of 
all  the  aspects  of  national  service  the 
methods  of  guerilla  warfare.  Is  it  any 

[ 183  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


wonder  that  under  the  strain  of  the 
world  crisis  it  should  break  down  ? 

What  is  the  explanation  of  so  stupid 
a policy?  It  is  the  lack  of  an  adequate 
ideal.  In  our  feeling,  whatever  may  be 
true  of  our  theory,  we  have  not  yet 
outgrown  the  feudal  age.  The  glamour 
of  the  age  of  chivalry  is  with  us  still, 
and  we  bring  up  our  children  to  think  of 
war  as  the  true  school  of  heroism  and 
soldiers  as  the  ideal  patriots.  Professor 
James  is  right.  We  need  a moral  equiv- 
alent of  war.  We  need  to  show  that 
there  is  a cause  as  splendid  as  any  for 
which  the  heroes  of  old  have  fought, 
demanding  virtues  as  exacting  and  mak- 
ing appeals  to  sacrifice  as  complete  as 
any  that  are  being  made  to-day  in  the 
mountains  of  the  Tyrol  or  the  battle- 
fields of  France.  Such  a cause  Jesus 
gives  us  in  his  gospel.  He  summons  us 
to  a new  crusade  for  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  It  is  our  part  as  Christians  to  give 

[ 184  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

form  and  definiteness  to  this  ideal,  to 
make  it  live  before  the  imagination  of 
men;  above  all,  to  show  its  bearing  upon 
our  own  duty  as  a nation,  and  the  part 
we  can  take  in  helping  to  translate  it 
into  fact. 

Not  less  preparedness  then  but  more 
should  be  the  national  motto — prepared- 
ness for  the  tasks  that  meet  us  every 
day  in  the  year,  preparedness  not  sim- 
ply or  chiefly  for  the  war  that  may  some 
day  be  possible,  but  for  the  peace  that 
is  inevitable.  When  once  the  imagina- 
tion of  men  has  been  captured  by  this 
conception  there  are  no  limits  to  what 
we  may  hope  to  achieve. 

Am  I giving  a counsel  of  perfection, 
a dream  out  of  place  in  this  world  of 
hard  fact,  the  world  of  Bernhardi  and 
Treitschke  and  Nietzsche?  If  so  it  is  a 
dream  that  has  been  dreamed  by  others 
who  cannot  be  accused  of  being  senti- 
mentalists. Nietzsche  to-day  is  every- 
[ 185  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

where  lauded  as  the  man  without  illusions, 
the  prophet  of  the  will  to  conquer,  the 
preacher  of  the  glory  of  strength  for 
strength’s  sake.  To  Nietzsche  then  let 
us  go.  This  is  what  he  has  to  say  of  the 
present  philosophy  of  preparedness: 

“Perhaps  a memorable  day  will  come 
when  a nation  renowned  in  wars  and 
victories,  distinguished  by  the  highest 
development  of  military  order  and  intel- 
ligence, and  accustomed  to  make  the 
heaviest  sacrifice  to  these  objects,  will 
voluntarily  exclaim,  £We  will  break  our 
swords,’  and  will  destroy  its  whole  mili- 
tary system,  lock,  stock,  and  barrel. 
Making  ourselves  defenseless  (after  hav- 
ing been  the  most  strongly  defended) 
from  a loftiness  of  sentiment — that  is 
the  means  toward  genuine  peace,  which 
must  always  rest  upon  a pacific  disposi- 
tion. The  so-called  armed  peace  that 
prevails  at  present  in  all  countries  is  a 
sign  of  a bellicose  disposition,  of  a dis- 
[ 186  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 


position  that  trusts  neither  itself  nor  its 
neighbor,  and,  partly  from  hate,  partly 
from  fear,  refuses  to  lay  down  its  weap- 
ons. Better  to  perish  than  to  hate  and 
fear,  and  twice  as  far  better  to  perish 
than  to  make  oneself  hated  and  feared. 
This  must  some  day  become  the  supreme 
maxim  of  every  political  community.”  1 
It  was  Germany’s  failure  to  see  this 
which  explains  why  she  has  lost  the  sym- 
pathy of  so  many  of  the  thoughtful  men 
in  the  neutral  nations.  More  than  for 
what  she  has  done  they  blame  her  for 
what  she  has  failed  to  do.  She  was 
the  country  to  which  educated  men  the 
world  over  had  been  accustomed  to  turn 
for  intellectual  leadership.  She  had  car- 
ried the  ideal  of  national  unity  further 
than  any  other  nation.  She  had  organ- 
ized her  resources  for  the  tasks  of  peace 


1 “Human,  all-too-human,”  Eng.  tr.,  vol.  II,  p.  337. 
I owe  the  quotation  to  Dr.  Gladden,  “The  Forks  of 
the  Road,”  pp.  83,  84. 


[ 187  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

with  an  intelligence  and  effectiveness  un- 
approached by  any  other  people.  Of  all 
the  nations  therefore  she  seemed  the  best 
fitted  to  realize  the  ideal  of  Nietzsche  of 
the  nation  strong  enough  to  fight  who 
yet  dared  to  take  risks  for  peace. 

She  did  not  do  it;  that  is  her  national 
sin.  It  is  no  excuse  to  say  that  in  this 
she  was  only  following  an  example  which 
had  been  set  by  other  nations  in  the 
past.  Even  if  this  were  true,  it  would 
not  exonerate  her.  The  nation  which  is 
to  lead  humanity  in  its  upward  march 
cannot  be  content  to  be  no  worse  than 
others.  It  must  be  actively  and  aggres- 
sively better.  When  Germany  put  aside 
the  dream  of  an  international  peace, 
based  on  confidence  and  justice,  and 
staked  her  all  upon  the  appeal  to  the 
sword  she  lost  her  opportunity  of  in- 
ternational leadership. 

And  what  is  true  of  Germany  will 
prove  true  of  every  other  nation  which 
[ 188  ] 


THE  DUTY  FOR  TO-MORROW 

follows  in  her  footsteps.  It  will  prove 
true  of  England  if  England  listens  to  the 
counsels  of  her  own  imperialists.  It  will 
prove  true  of  the  United  States  if  we  al- 
low ourselves  to  be  swept  from  our  moor- 
ing by  those  who  in  matters  of  national 
policy  would  bid  us  take  counsel  of  our 
fears.  What  will  it  profit  to  conquer 
the  armies  of  the  enemy  in  the  field  if 
the  philosophy  which  armed  them  re- 
mains unsubdued  ? Unless  this  war  bring 
changes,  not  simply  in  the  outward  rela- 
tions, but  in  the  spirit  of  men,  its  vast 
sacrifices  and  unexampled  heroism  will 
have  been  spent  in  vain. 

Is  there  not  here  a great  opportunity 
for  the  Japanese  people  ? What  the 
world  needs  to-day,  I repeat,  is  interna- 
tional leadership — the  example  of  a great 
nation,  wise  enough  to  read  the  signs  of 
the  times  and  daring  enough  to  follow 
what  they  see.  Before  you,  as  before 
every  civilized  people,  there  open  two 
[ 189  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

possibilities,  and  between  them  you  must 
choose.  There  is  on  the  one  hand  the 
policy  of  imperialistic  nationalism,  with 
its  corollary  in  militarism,  and  on  the 
other  the  policy  of  international  co-opera- 
tion and  brotherhood  with  preparedness 
indeed,  but  preparedness  which  is  directed 
to  the  single  end  of  promoting  good  feel- 
ing between  the  nations  and  so  removing 
the  preventable  causes  of  war.  The  first 
promises  the  more  immediate  success. 
The  second  looks  to  the  longer  future. 
Which  part  will  you  take?  You  have 
done  great  things  in  the  past.  Are  you 
strong  enough  and  brave  enough  to  at- 
tempt still  greater?  You  have  proved 
yourselves  masters  of  the  art  of  war. 
Will  you  be  able  to  show  an  equal  mas- 
tery of  the  greater  and  the  more  difficult, 
and  may  I add,  the  more  heroic  art  of 
peace  ? 


[ 190  ] 


CHAPTER  V 

WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

But  after  all  what  one  nation  can  do 
alone  even  with  the  best  will  in  the 
world  is  limited.  Between  nations  as 
between  individuals,  there  must  be  co- 
operation on  a large  scale  if  large  results 
are  to  be  obtained.  It  is  one  of  the  en- 
couraging features  of  the  present  situa- 
tion that  this  is  being  so  generally  recog- 
nized. From  widely  different  quarters 
we  find  the  conviction  expressed  that 
the  present  condition  of  international 
anarchy  must  no  longer  be  permitted  to 
continue,  but  that  the  common  interest 
of  the  different  nations  in  a peace  based 
upon  justice  must  find  expression  in 
some  international  organization  represen- 
tative enough  to  command  confidence, 
and  strong  enough  to  enforce  respect. 

[ 191  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  see  what  ought 
to  be  done,  and  quite  another  to  devise 
means  for  doing  it.  Here  it  must  be 
confessed  that  the  outlook  is  not  encour- 
aging. Individuals  have  been  won  to 
the  ideal  of  a League  of  the  Nations. 
Societies  have  been  formed  to  educate 
public  sentiment  in  favor  of  concerted 
action  in  matters  affecting  the  peace  of 
the  world.  But  there  exists  to-day  no 
organized  body  able  to  bring  to  the  cause 
of  internationalism  a support  as  effec- 
tive and  resources  as  great  as  nationalism 
can  command  within  each  of  the  coun- 
tries which  it  is  proposed  to  unite. 

Did  I say  that  there  was  no  organiza- 
tion? I spoke  too  hastily.  Yes,  there 
is  one,  if  only  we  realized  its  potentiali- 
ties and  were  prepared  to  use  them  for 
the  great  ends  at  stake.  This  organiza- 
tion is  the  Christian  church.  In  the 
church  we  have  a body  whose  member- 
ship includes  all  classes  and  all  races, 
[ 192  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 
which  is  committed  by  its  very  constitu- 
tion to  faith  in  the  unity  of  mankind, 
and  which  has  its  representatives  in  ev- 
ery quarter  of  the  globe.  In  the  church, 
therefore,  we  have  an  agency  of  unri- 
valled power  for  realizing  the  Christian 
spcial  ideal. 

But  as  yet  this  great  instrument  has 
never  been  effectively  used.  The  church 
of  Christ,  great  as  have  been  its  services 
to  humanity,  has  never  yet  fairly  faced 
its  responsibility  for  social  reconstruc- 
tion. It  has  confined  itself  largely  to  the 
work  of  saving  individuals  and  in  this 
limited  sphere  has  not  been  able  to  agree 
as  to  the  method  in  which  this  was  to  be 
done.  So  we  see  the  lamentable  spec- 
tacle of  a divided  Christendom,  impotent 
to  realize  the  unity  in  which  it  professes 
to  believe. 

We  have  already  considered  the  rea- 
sons which  explain  this  failure.  Some 
of  these  reasons  are  historical,  growing 
[ 193  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

out  of  the  intellectual  environment,  and 
for  which  Christians  are  only  in  part 
responsible;  our  ignorance  of  the  laws 
of  social  life,  for  example,  the  pressing 
importance  of  meeting  the  primary  needs 
of  the  individual  soul.  But  the  point  is 
that  we  face  a new  situation  to-day,  and 
can  no  longer  plead  ignorance.  We  know 
to-day  the  power  of  social  organization, 
and  the  greatness  of  social  need.  We 
hear  the  call  to  united  action  from  men 
who,  for  lack  of  our  union,  are  perishing. 

Here  is  our  supreme  opportunity  as 
Christians— to  make  the  church  in  fact 
what  in  theory  it  professes  to  be,  the 
representative  and  spokesman  of  the 
spiritual  unity  of  mankind. 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  it  is  too  late; 
that  the  church  has  had  its  chance  and 
failed.  That  is  no  more  true  of  the 
church  than  of  every  other  international 
organization.  Socialism,  too,  has  failed, 
and  international  law.  Arbitration  has 
[ 194  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

failed,  and  The  Hague  court — failed, 
that  is  to  say,  for  the  time  being.  But 
that  does  not  mean  that  the  failure  need 
be  permanent.  The  direction  of  a mov- 
ing body  is  determined  by  the  relative 
strength  of  the  different  forces  which 
play  upon  it;  and  because  at  any  par- 
ticular time  the  forces  which  favor  prog- 
ress have  not  yet  acquired  momentum 
enough  to  overcome  the  forces  which 
oppose  it,  it  does  not  follow  that  they 
have  no  momentum,  or  that  they  may 
not  at  some  future  time  gain  the  mastery. 
It  is  not  the  situation  at  the  present 
moment  which  will  prove  finally  decisive 
for  the  future  organization  of  society, 
but  the  rate  at  which  each  of  its  com- 
ponent elements  is  increasing  or  dimin- 
ishing, and  that  is  a matter  in  which  our 
own  activity  may  play  a determining 
part. 

What  contribution,  then,  has  the 
church  to  make  to  the  work  of  social 
[ 195  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


reconstruction?  In  the  equation  of  so- 
cial progress  what  particular  increment 
of  power  may  it  fairly  be  expected  to 
contribute  ? 

Three  things  at  least  the  church  can 
do,  which  need  to  be  done.  In  the  first 
place,  it  can  remind  us  of  the  degree  of 
unity  which  we  have  already  attained. 
In  the  second  place,  it  can  furnish  us  a 
training-school  for  common  action  in  the 
service  of  mankind.  In  the  third  place, 
it  can  foster  that  attitude  of  expectant 
faith  without  which  great  undertakings 
are  impossible. 

In  the  first  place  the  church  can  re- 
mind us  of  the  degree  of  unity  to  which 
we  have  already  attained.  This  is  a 
service  of  the  highest  importance.  There 
are  men  and  women  in  every  country 
to-day  who  feel  their  oneness  in  purpose 
and  sympathy  with  their  fellow  Chris- 
tians with  whom  for  the  time  being, 
[ 196  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

through  no  fault  of  their  own,  they  are 
at  strife,  and  who  desire  nothing  better 
than  to  co-operate  with  them  in  resist- 
ing the  campaign  of  bitterness  and  hate 
which  threatens  the  future  of  all  they 
hold  most  dear.  But  they  lack  the  means 
to  make  their  will  effective  in  action. 

Just  before  the  war  broke  out  there 
was  held  at  Constance  in  Germany  a 
conference  of  Christian  ministers  to  dis- 
cuss international  peace.  Among  those 
present  were  Englishmen  and  Americans, 
Dutchmen  and  Swedes,  Frenchmen  and 
Germans.  They  met  under  the  shadow 
of  the  impending  crisis,  and  men  who 
were  there  have  told  me  that  they  will 
never  forget  the  solemnity  and  the  ten- 
derness of  their  communion  together  dur- 
ing the  few  brief  hours  before  they  were 
obliged  to  separate. 

There  are  Christians,  I repeat,  in  every 
country  with  such  an  international  con- 
sciousness, but  their  witness  is  ineffec- 
[ 197  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

live  because  it  does  not  reach  those  for 
whom  it  is  most  needed.  The  channels 
of  expression  which  were  open  to  them 
in  peace  are  closed  in  war.  When  Dr. 
Lahusen  of  Berlin  preaches  a sermon  on 
the  necessity  of  forgiving  our  enemies, 
of  which  more  than  fifty  thousand  copies 
are  sold  in  Germany,1  no  echo  finds  its 
way  across  the  sea  to  England.  The 
papers  are  too  full  of  Lissauer’s  “Hymn 
of  Hate.”  When  Dr.  Temple  and  other 
English  Christians  unite  in  the  publi- 
cation of  “Papers  for  War  Time,”  2 in 
which  the  nobler  aspects  of  Christianity 
find  expression,  or  bow  in  prayer  for  the 
brothers  across  the  sea,  from  whom  for 
the  time  the  fortunes  of  war  have  sepa- 
rated them,  word  of  it  finds  its  way  to 
Germany  only  through  some  chance  let- 
ter of  an  American  friend,  and  that 
months  afterward.  Yet  it  is  through 
such  contacts  alone  that  the  unity  of 
1 Berlin,  1915.  2 Oxford,  1914. 

[ 198  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

the  Christian  consciousness  can  be  main- 
tained. One  of  the  most  pressing  duties 
before  the  church  is  to  devise  some 
method  by  which  this  difficulty  can  be 
overcome,  and  freedom  of  communica- 
tion secured  between  the  different  bodies 
of  Christians  in  time  of  war. 

Let  us  suppose  that  when  the  German 
Christians  published  their  open  letter  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  in  which  they 
passionately  protested  their  country’s 
innocence  of  any  aggressive  intention, 
and  put  the  blame  for  what  had  hap- 
pened upon  their  opponents,  their  fellow 
Christians  in  England,  instead  of  enter- 
ing into  the  issues  immediately  in  con- 
troversy, should  have  addressed  them 
in  some  such  fashion  as  this:  “We  un- 
derstand and  respect  the  spirit  of  patri- 
otism which  impels  you  to  spring  to 
the  defense  of  your  country  in  her  hour 
of  crisis;  we  feel  a like  impulse  and 
acknowledge  a similar  duty.  What  you 
[ 199  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

believe  about  Germany  we  believe  about 
England,  and  if  this  were  the  proper 
time  and  place  we  could  argue  our  coun- 
try’s cause  with  a conviction  no  less  sin- 
cere than  yours,  and  with  arguments 
which  we  believe  to  be  better  founded. 
But  this  has  been  done  by  others,  and  to 
their  statement  we  are  content  to  refer 
you.  We  who  are  servants  of  Christ 
have  other  interests  to  guard  and  owe 
a higher  allegiance.  While  this  great 
issue  is  being  fought  out,  and  until  the 
verdict  of  history  on  the  immediate  points 
in  controversy  shall  be  finally  rendered, 
it  is  our  duty  to  guard  the  spiritual  in- 
terests of  mankind;  to  maintain  unbroken 
the  continuity  of  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness; to  resist  the  attempts  of  men  of  ill 
will  on  both  sides  to  add  to  our  just 
causes  of  quarrel  the  bitterness  of  un- 
just suspicion  and  malicious  falsehood; 
to  serve  as  the  organ  through  which  the 
spirit  of  faith  and  hope  and  love,  which 
[ 200  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

we  are  sure  is  present  with  you  as  we 
know  it  is  with  us,  may  find  effective  ex- 
pression in  action. 

“Will  you  not  join  us  in  the  attempt 
to  fulfil  this  duty  effectively?  Let  us 
appoint  representatives  of  the  Christian 
bodies  on  both  sides  of  the  contest.  Let 
us  request  from  our  governments  the 
privilege  of  free  communication  between 
the  two.  Let  us  refer  to  them  each  story 
of  cruelty  and  oppression  on  either  side 
for  impartial  investigation,  and  so  far  as 
possible  for  correction  or  redress.  Above 
all,  let  these  representatives  see  to  it 
that  every  utterance  of  the  Christian 
spirit,  every  instance  of  generous  deed 
or  unselfish  thought  in  each  country  at 
war  is  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  citi- 
zens of  the  others.  Do  not  let  us  leave  to 
neutrals  in  time  of  war  the  duty  of  medi- 
ating between  Christians.  Let  us  claim 
our  right  as  fellow  members  of  the  body 
of  Christ  to  direct  access  to  one  another.” 

[ 201  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


Such  an  appeal,  whether  successful  or 
not,  would  have  had  a moral  value  diffi- 
cult to  overestimate.  Its  tones  would 
have  echoed  around  the  world.  It  would 
have  set  a standard  for  the  church  of  the 
future. 

But  what  the  churches  as  a whole  are 
not  yet  ready  to  do,  groups  of  Christians 
are  already  doing.  There  are  agencies 
actively  at  work  to-day  in  which  the 
internationalism  implicit  in  Christianity 
finds  clear  and  self-conscious  expression. 
One  such  agency  is  the  Peace  Movement; 
another  is  the  Student  Movement.  Most 
far-reaching  in  its  effect  is  the  Foreign 
Missionary  enterprise.  It  is  one  of  the 
grounds  of  encouragement  in  the  present 
situation  that  the  bonds  which  united 
the  workers  in  these  different  causes, 
while  strained,  have  not  been  broken  by 
the  war.  Interchanges  of  sentiment  have 
taken  place  between  their  leaders.  Pray- 
ers have  been  offered  for  the  comrades  in 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 


the  countries  at  war.  Even  now  plans 
are  being  actively  discussed  for  the  re- 
sumption of  the  common  task  as  soon  as 
the  war  is  over.1 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  impor- 
tance of  this  service.  We  have  spoken 
repeatedly  of  selfishness  as  a cause  of 
war.  But  after  all  this  is  only  part  of 
the  explanation  and  not  the  most  serious. 
Nations  fight  not  only  because  of  what 
they  suffer,  or  of  what  they  covet,  but  be- 
cause of  what  they  fear.  Russia  had  not 
attacked  Germany,  but  Germany  tells  us 
that  she  is  fighting  because  Russia  was 
going  to  attack  her  by  and  by.  France 


1 A brief  account  of  conferences  conducted  by  Pro- 
fessor Battin,  on  behalf  of  the  League  of  International 
Friendship,  with  representative  Christians  in  the  differ- 
ent countries  at  war,  appeared  in  the  Christian  Work 
for  August  5,  1916.  Of  unusual  interest  was  the  ex- 
perience of  Dr.  Mott,  who  visited  Europe  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  Student  Movement  in  1914,  and  again 
in  1916.  Many  individual  instances  of  international 
good  feeling  have  been  collected  in  Good-Will,  the  or- 
gan of  the  English  Friends.  Cf.  also  the  files  of  Die 
Eiche,  the  organ  of  the  German  Peace  Movement. 

[ 203  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

had  not  invaded  Belgium,  but  Germany 
insists  that  she  invaded  Belgium  because 
she  knew  that  France  was  going  to  do  so 
by  and  by.  And  so  it  goes  in  a circle 
that  knows  no  end.  Selfishness  breeds 
suspicion,  and  suspicion  fear.  The  un- 
derlying cause  of  war  is  not  merely 
men’s  memory  of  the  wrongs  which  they 
have  experienced  in  the  past.  It  is  the 
dogma  which  makes  the  past  the  mea- 
sure of  the  future,  and  refuses  to  believe 
in  the  possibility  of  any  change  for  the 
better  in  the  relations  between  nations. 
It  is  the  denial  not  simply  in  fact  but 
in  theory  of  the  cardinal  Christian  prin- 
ciple of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

Now  the  only  way  to  meet  such  an 
issue  successfully  is  to  bring  evidence  to 
the  contrary.  We  must  call  attention 
to  the  numbers  of  men  and  women  in  all 
countries  who  do  in  fact  love  justice  and 
follow  mercy,  and  who,  if  they  were  but 
convinced  of  the  existence  of  similar  sen- 
[ 204  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

timents  in  the  citizens  of  other  countries, 
would  be  glad  to  co-operate  with  them 
in  a policy  of  international  friendliness. 
We  must  resist  at  all  hazards  the  temp- 
tation to  attribute  all  virtue  to  oneself, 
and  all  vice  to  one’s  opponents,  and  re- 
alize that  in  spite  of  all  outward  differ- 
ences, in  its  deepest  longings  and  desires 
the  human  race  is  fundamentally  one. 

Who  is  in  a better  position  to  furnish 
this  evidence  than  the  Christian  church  ? 
To  Christians  human  brotherhood  is  not 
an  unproved  thing.  It  is  a fact  that  has 
been  demonstrated  over  and  over  again 
by  evidence  of  the  most  convincing  char- 
acter. For  generations  the  church  has 
been  putting  to  the  proof  its  faith  in  the 
power  of  the  gospel  to  transcend  differ- 
ences of  race  and  of  class,  and  it  has 
found  it  justified. 

On  June  7,  1916,  there  was  held  in 
Constantinople  the  commencement  exer- 
cises of  a women’s  college.  The  gradu- 
[ 205  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

ating  class  numbered  seventeen  in  all: 
three  were  Turks,  seven  were  Bulgarians, 
three  were  Greeks,  five  were  Armenians, 
and  one  a Jewess.  For  years  the  peo- 
ples to  whom  these  graduates  belonged 
had  been  enemies,  and  more  than  once 
had  engaged  in  deadly  and  internecine 
strife.  The  Greeks  had  fought  with  the 
Bulgarians,  and  the  Bulgarians  with  the 
Turks,  and  for  the  Armenians  the  very 
word  Turk  was  a synonym  for  all  that 
was  most  inhuman  and  damnable.  Yet 
here  in  the  very  storm  centre  of  the 
world’s  strife,  with  war  raging  all  about 
them,  and  no  one  knowing  what  a day 
might  bring  forth,  they  met  on  common 
ground  as  members  of  the  sisterhood  of 
educated  women. 

This  is  what  Christianity  is  doing  to- 
day, and  what  it  proposes  to  do.  It  is 
facing  the  race  prejudice  which  is  so 
formidable  an  obstacle  to  peace  among 
the  nations,  and  proving  that  it  is  not 
[ 206  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

insuperable.  It  is  furnishing  a solid 
basis  in  experience  for  our  faith  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man. 

When  the  war  broke  out  fear  was  ex- 
pressed of  the  adverse  influence  which 
the  European  strife  might  exert  upon 
Christian  missions.  If  even  to  us  at 
home  the  war  has  proved  a challenge  to 
faith,  should  we  not  expect  it  to  prove 
a blow  still  more  severe  to  those  less 
mature  Christians  whose  acquaintance 
with  Christianity  was  so  much  more 
recent  ? 

This  fear  has  not  been  justified  by  the 
event.  The  war  has  shaken  faith  indeed, 
but  not  in  Christianity.  It  has  shaken 
faith  in  the  profession  of  the  Western 
nations  to  be  Christian  nations.  To 
those  of  us  who  have  been  brought  up 
from  childhood  in  Europe  or  America, 
the  identification  of  Western  civilization 
with  Christianity  may  be  a natural  thing. 
To  the  Christians  of  China  and  Japan, 

[ 207  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

to  whom  Christianity  has  come  in  its 
native  guise  of  unselfish  service  and  sac- 
rificial love,  no  such  confusion  is  pos- 
sible. They  see  clearly  that  it  is  not 
Christianity  which  has  failed,  but  a civili- 
zation which  falsely  calls  itself  Christian. 
More  powerful  than  any  apologetic  of  the 
schools  is  the  demonstration  of  the  break- 
down of  a purely  material  civilization. 

Against  this  lurid  background  the 
beauty  of  the  Christian  spirit  shines  with 
a purer  radiance.  Where  strife  is  fiercest 
we  see  love  reaching  across  the  barriers 
which  war  has  raised.  The  incident  of 
the  English  and  German  soldiers  who 
left  the  trenches  to  fraternize  together 
on  Christmas  Day  has  its  parallel  in 
many  others  less  well  known.  From  the 
letter  of  a young  English  officer  in  Bel- 
gium I quote  these  words: 

The  other  night  four  German  snipers  were 
shot  on  our  wire.  The  next  night  our  men 
went  out  and  brought  one  in  who  was  near 
[ 208  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

and  get-at-able,  and  buried  him.  They  did 
it  with  just  the  same  reverence  and  sadness 
as  they  do  to  our  own  dear  fellows.  I went 
to  look  at  the  grave  the  next  morning,  and 
one  of  the  most  uncouth-looking  men  in 
my  company  had  placed  a cross  at  the  head 
of  the  grave,  and  had  written  on  it: 

“Here  lies  a German 
We  don’t  know  his  name; 

He  died  bravely  fighting 
For  his  Fatherland.” 

And  under  that,  “Gott  Mitt  uns”  (sic),  that 
being  the  highest  effort  of  all  the  men  at 
German. 

A French  soldier,  wounded  in  a recent 
attack  on  the  German  trenches,  related 
the  following  incident:  “Near  me,” 
he  says,  “lay  two  soldiers,  mortally 
wounded;  one,  a Bavarian,  young  and 
fair-haired,  with  a gaping  wound  in 
his  stomach,  and  the  other  a young 
Frenchman,  hit  in  the  side  and  head. 
Both  were  in  mortal  pain,  and  growing 
paler  and  paler.  I saw  a feeble  move- 
[ 209  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

ment  on  the  part  of  the  Frenchman; 
he  painfully  slipped  his  hand  under  his 
coat  for  something  hidden  away  under 
his  breast.  He  drew  out  a little  silver 
crucifix,  which  he  pressed  to  his  lips. 
Feebly,  but  clearly,  he  began:  ‘Hail, 
Mary,  full  of  grace.’  The  Bavarian 
opened  his  blue  eyes,  which  were  al- 
ready glazing  with  approaching  death, 
turned  his  head  toward  the  Frenchman, 
and  with  a look,  not  of  hate  but  almost 
of  love,  finished  in  a murmur  the  prayer, 
‘Holy  Mary,  Mother  of  God,  pray  for  us 
sinners  now  and  at  the  hour  of  death.’ 
The  eyes  of  the  two  men  met,  and  they 
understood.  They  were  two  companions 
in  like  misfortune,  desiring  to  die  believ- 
ing according  to  their  faith.  The  French- 
man held  out  his  crucifix  to  the  other, 
who  kissed  it,  and  taking  him  by  the 
hand  said:  ‘Having  served  our  countries, 
let  us  go  to  God  reconciled.’  ”x 
1 Christian  Work , July  22,  1916. 

[ 210  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 


Such  stories  could  be  multiplied  a thou- 
sandfold. Underneath  the  strife  and  pas- 
sion we  detect  a great  hunger  for  some- 
thing different,  a longing  too  deep  for 
words  for  some  new  and  better  form  of 
life,  waiting  only  for  the  appropriate  oc- 
casion to  crystallize  into  action. 

It  is  for  the  church  to  give  voice  to 
this  longing,  to  assemble  the  evidence 
from  all  races  of  mankind  which  witnesses 
to  the  gain  already  made  in  the  struggle 
for  spiritual  ideals  and  holds  out  promise 
of  ultimate  victory. 

This  does  not  mean  that  we  are  to 
idealize  humanity  or  shut  our  eyes  to 
the  ignorance  and  weakness  which  play 
so  large  a role  in  human  affairs.  It  does 
not  mean  that  we  are  to  condone  wrong- 
doing, or  fail  to  protest  against  it  when- 
ever we  see  it.  On  the  contrary,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  effect  of  Christianity 
should  be  to  intensify  the  conscious- 
ness of  sin  and  to  sharpen  the  judg- 

[ 211  1 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

ment  passed  upon  selfishness  and  cruelty, 
whether  in  ourselves  or  others.  But  it 
does  mean  that  the  judgment  which  we 
pass  must  be  Christian  judgment.  We 
must  judge  others  as  we  should  wish  to 
be  judged  ourselves  if  we  had  done  the 
things  which  we  condemn  in  them.  We 
remember  that  we  ourselves  have  done 
wrong  and  repented,  and  we  hope  that 
our  sin  has  been  forgiven.  We  dare  not 
deny  to  others  what  we  claim  for  our- 
selves. We  must  believe,  however  hard 
at  the  time  it  may  be  to  do  so,  that  in 
its  heart  of  hearts  each  people  of  man- 
kind wants  to  do  what  is  right  when  it 
sees  what  right  is,  and  that  in  each  the 
forces  of  good-will  will  in  the  end  prove 
stronger  than  the  forces  for  evil.  In 
spite  of  all  discouragement  and  temporary 
failure  we  must  hold  fast  to  our  faith 
that  the  splendid  qualities  which  have 
gone  into  the  building  of  each  of  the  na- 
tions at  strife  have  not  exhausted  thern- 
[ 212  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 


selves  in  this  immediate  task,  but  have 
their  part  to  play  in  the  building  of  that 
larger  citizenship  which  we  call  the  King- 
dom of  God. 

When  the  returning  pilgrims  from  the 
Peace  Conference  at  Constance  met  the 
German  officers  who  had  been  commis- 
sioned by  the  Kaiser  to  conduct  them 
to  the  frontier,  the  officers  could  not  re- 
strain their  laughter  when  they  learned 
the  business  that  had  brought  the  trav- 
ellers to  Germany.  But  he  laughs  best 
who  laughs  last.  Man  is  not  simply 
German  or  English  or  Belgian,  but 
human,  born  of  woman,  child  of  God, 
brother  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  war  may 
teach  this  lesson  no  less  than  peace.  It 
is  teaching  it  to-day.  In  many  a hos- 
pital, on  many  a battle-field,  the  love  of 
kind  overleaps  the  boundaries  of  race, 
and  the  ministry  of  Christ  makes  akin 
those  who  but  now  were  locked  in  the 
death-struggle.  Some  day  this  loving 

[ 213  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 


service  will  bear  its  fruit,  and  the  “con- 
flict of  ideals”  be  resolved  in  the  “har- 
mony of  sacrifice.” 

But  after  all  what  can  be  done  by  the 
church  in  time  of  war  is  limited  at  best. 
The  true  concern  of  Christianity  as  we 
have  seen  is  with  the  causes  which  pro- 
duce war,  and  these  can  be  dealt  with 
successfully  only  in  time  of  peace.  It  is 
not  enough  to  recognize  the  ties  which 
already  unite  men.  We  must  increase 
their  number  and  strengthen  their  hold- 
ing power,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by 
providing  some  common  object  definite 
enough  to  arouse  interest  and  appealing 
enough  to  command  loyalty. 

Here  again  the  church  holds  a stra- 
tegic position,  for  in  work  for  the  up- 
building of  the  Kingdom  of  God  it 
possesses  such  a unifying  object.  The 
church  is  not  simply  a body  of  wor- 
shippers conscious  of  a common  relation 
[ 214  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

to  God.  It  is  a missionary  society  com- 
mitted to  a world  programme.  It  exists 
to  make  the  world  over  after  the  ideal 
which  Christ  has  revealed.  It  is  a train- 
ing-school for  common  action  in  the  ser- 
vice of  humanity. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  im- 
portance of  this  contribution.  One  of 
the  saddest  of  all  the  effects  of  the  war  is 
the  division  which  it  has  caused  among 
Christians.  We  have  already  called  at- 
tention to  this.  Men  who  claim  to  wor- 
ship the  same  God  are  fighting  on  op- 
posite sides,  and  each  prays  to  the  same 
Deity  for  victory  over  the  other. 

In  part,  no  doubt,  this  is  due  to  honest 
misunderstanding.  Men  do  not  know 
the  real  spirit  of  their  opponents,  and 
because  of  this  misconception  are  led 
astray. 

But  this  is  true  only  in  part.  When 
one  studies  the  utterances  which  the  war 
has  called  forth,  one  is  led  to  the  conclu- 
[215] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

sion,  reluctantly  to  be  sure,  but  still  in- 
evitably, that  there  is  a real  difference 
in  the  God  worshipped.  Under  the  name 
of  Christ  many  so-called  Christians  are 
really  worshipping  a very  different  Deity. 

During  the  early  months  of  the  war  I 
read  an  article  by  a distinguished  the- 
ologian on  the  ethics  of  war.  In  this 
article  he  laid  down  the  principle  that 
war  was  God’s  way  of  re-establishing  the 
balance  between  the  real  power  of  a 
nation  at  a particular  time,  and  its  po- 
litical power;  and  since  this  was  true, 
it  was  manifestly  the  duty  of  the  con- 
queror in  any  war  to  keep  all  he  could 
get,  since  only  under  such  conditions 
could  God’s  purpose  be  accomplished. 

This  article  happened  to  be  written 
by  a German,  but  the  philosophy  which 
it  inculcates  is  not  confined  to  any  coun- 
try. It  has  its  advocates  in  all.  When 
men  deny  that  the  principles  of  Christ 
are  valid  for  nations,  when  they  turn  to 
[ 216  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

force  as  the  final  arbiter  in  international 
disputes,  they  are  really  taking  refuge  in 
a pre-Christian  religion.  They  are  wor- 
shipping Thor  or  Odin  under  the  name 
of  Christ. 

We  have  already  dealt  with  the  prob- 
lem which  this  fact  raises  for  faith.  It 
is  a part  of  the  larger  problem  of  social 
progress.  History,  as  we  have  seen,  does 
not  move  in  a straight  line.  It  has  its 
eddies  and  its  backwaters,  its  failures 
and  its  retrogressions.  God  has  been 
training  man  for  Christianity  through  a 
long  historic  process,  leading  him  up 
step  by  step  from  the  beast  to  the  man, 
from  the  old  man  in  Adam  to  the  new 
man  in  Christ,  and  the  traces  of  the 
earlier  stages  still  survive. 

We  can  follow  the  steps  of  this  educa- 
tion in  the  Bible.  Before  Christ  came 
there  were  generations  when  men  thought 
of  God  in  terms  of  power  rather  than  of 
love.  Jehovah  was  the  God  of  hosts, 

[ 217  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

the  Lord  of  the  armies  of  Israel.  He 
called  upon  Joshua  to  exterminate  the 
inhabitants  of  Ai  and  rebuked  Saul  for 
saving  Agag  alive.  Only  gradually  was 
the  lesson  learned  that  God  desires  re- 
pentance rather  than  vengeance,  and 
that  he  saves  by  sacrificial  love. 

It  is  not  strange  then  that  men  to-day 
should  grasp  at  the  less  advanced  pas- 
sages in  the  Old  Testament  as  an  excuse 
for  their  own  selfishness  or  lack  of  faith, 
and  invoke  Christ  to  bless  the  very  thing 
that  he  came  to  destroy.  The  thing  has 
occurred  again  and  again  in  history.  We 
meet  it  in  Puritanism  with  its  exalta- 
tion of  Old  Testament  ethics  to  the  level 
of  the  New.  We  meet  it  in  the  Inquisi- 
tion with  its  attempt  to  substitute  force 
for  persuasion  in  dealing  with  questions 
of  personal  conviction.  We  meet  it  in 
the  claim  of  the  militant  Popes  to  an 
absolute  and  unquestioning  obedience. 
Imperialism  is  not  simply  a philosophy; 

[ 218  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 


it  is  a religion,  and  one  of  the  oldest. 
And  imperialism  is  not  less  imperialism 
when  it  borrows  Christian  garments  and 
masquerades  under  the  name  of  Christ. 

How  shall  we  meet  this  situation  ? 
What  influence  can  we  command  power- 
ful enough  to  exorcise  this  evil  spirit? 
There  is  only  one  influence  strong  enough, 
and  that  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  The 
only  weapon  with  which  to  fight  an  ideal 
is  a higher  ideal;  the  only  way  to  con- 
quer a loyalty  is  by  a stronger  loyalty. 

Our  supreme  need,  then,  is  of  a virile 
gospel.  It  is  not  enough  to  promise 
comfort;  not  enough  to  preach  salvation. 
War’s  appeal  is  to  the  strong.  Its  com- 
pensation is  spiritual — glory  or  honor, 
or  the  consciousness  of  duty  done,  or 
the  thanks  of  a grateful  country.  If  we 
are  to  win  men  from  such  a service  we 
must  offer  similar  rewards,  greater  glory, 
truer  honor,  a higher  duty,  the  gratitude 
of  mankind.  Safety  first  may  be  a good 

[ 219  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

motto  for  a railroad  or  a savings-bank; 
it  will  not  do  for  a country,  still  less  for 
a church.  The  religion  that  is  to  con- 
quer the  world  must  be  a fighting  re- 
ligion. It  must  write  on  its  banner  New 
Wars  for  Old. 

Such  a motto  foreign  missions  offer 
the  church.  Missions  are  religion’s  invi- 
tation to  the  spirit  of  adventure.  They 
show  us  Christianity  in  its  fighting  mood, 
the  church  organized  for  conquest.  In 
missions  we  see  the  effort  to  realize  the 
unity  of  mankind  by  the  free  sharing  of 
each  with  all  of  the  highest  blessings  of 
the  spirit.  We  see  love  going  out  into 
all  the  world  to  heal  and  to  serve.  But 
we  see  more  than  this.  We  see  love 
appealing  to  the  free  spirit  to  become 
its  own  true  self;  to  break  the  bonds  of 
ignorance  and  sloth  and  indifference  and 
unbelief  with  which  it  has  too  long  been 
shackled,  and  to  join  the  ranks  of  the 
healers  and  the  sharers. 

[ 220  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

This  definition  puts  foreign  missions  in 
their  true  perspective.  They  are  not  an 
isolated  thing,  a task  to  which  a man  may 
give  himself  for  its  own  sake,  without 
reference  to  or  regard  for  other  human 
interests.  They  are  a part— the  most 
important  and  significant  part— -of  that 
modern  social  movement  which  is  so 
characteristic  a feature  of  our  age.  They 
are  the  way  the  Christian  spirit  responds 
to  the  Master’s  summons  to  refashion 
the  social  order  after  the  pattern  which 
he  has  set.  In  them  human  brother- 
hood translates  itself  from  faith  into  fact. 

In  a recent  address  upon  the  American 
spirit1  Mr.  Lane,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  thus  interprets  the  peace-loving 
spirit  of  the  American  people:  “The 
spirit  of  America  is  against  war  not  be- 
cause we  have  grown  cowardly  and  fear 
death,  nor  because  we  have  grown  flabby 
and  love  softness;  no,  not  even  because 
1 The  Survey,  July  15,  1916. 

I 221  1 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

we  have  become  conscious  converts  to 
the  Prince  of  Peace.  But  we  in  America 
have  something  larger  to  do.  We  are 
discovering  our  country.  Every  tree  is 
a challenge  to  us,  and  every  pool  of 
water  and  every  foot  of  soil.  The  moun- 
tains are  our  enemies.  • We  must  pierce 
them  and  make  them  serve.  The  wilful 
rivers  we  must  curb ; and  out  of  the  seas 
and  the  air  renew  the  life  of  the  earth 
itself.  We  have  no  time  for  war.  We 
are  doing  something  so  much  more  im- 
portant. We  are  at  work.  That  is  the 
greatest  of  all  adventures.” 

It  is  a true  interpretation  of  the  la- 
tent idealism  in  the  American  character. 
Business  to  the  American  is  not  simply 
making  money;  it  is  conquering  diffi- 
culties; it  is  measuring  one’s  strength 
against  obstacles;  it  is  making  some- 
thing where  there  was  nothing  before; 
it  is  refashioning  the  world  after  the  pat- 
tern of  an  ideal. 


[ 222  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

But  there  are  ideals  and  ideals.  If  it 
is  a big  thing  to  subdue  nature,  it  is  a 
bigger  to  conquer  spirit.  If  it  be  a man’s 
work  to  transform  the  physical  universe, 
it  is  no  less  a man’s  work  to  make  over 
society.  But  it  is  this  and  nothing  less 
for  which  foreign  missions  stand. 

There  was  a time,  as  we  have  seen, 
when  the  missionary  enterprise  exhausted 
itself  in  its  appeal  to  the  individual:  To 
win  a convert  here  and  there  from  other 
religions;  to  organize  them  into  little 
groups;  to  draw  hard  and  fast  the  lines 
which  separated  the  Christian  community 
from  its  heathen  environment — this  was 
the  missionary’s  work. 

But  these  days  have  long  passed. 
Foreign  missions  have  entered  upon  a 
new  phase.  The  appeal  to  the  individual 
is  no  less  important  than  it  was  before, 
but  we  see  the  individual  in  a new  set- 
ting. He  is  a member  of  a community 
that  we  wish  to  transform.  He  is  the 
[ 223  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

citizen  of  a nation  that  we  wish  to  win. 
It  is  not  Chinese  simply  that  we  are 
trying  to  Christianize,  but  China;  not 
Indians,  but  India;  not  Japanese,  but 
Japan;  not  Americans,  but  America.  To 
men  with  such  an  aim  there  is  nothing 
foreign.  Everything  human  has  interest 
for  us  since  everything  human  bears  di- 
rectly upon  our  task.  Education,  indus- 
try, commerce,  statesmanship,  whatever 
concerns  the  relation  of  man  to  man,  or 
of  state  to  state,  comes  within  the  pur- 
view of  the  missionary,  is  relevant  to  the 
task  to  which  he  has  set  his  hand.  The 
great  missionaries  have  not  been  simply 
preachers ; they  have  been  statesmen  and 
diplomats.  Martin  gave  China  its  in- 
ternational law;  Washburn  was  the  lead- 
ing authority  on  the  Turkish  question, 
the  trusted  friend  and  counsellor  of  the 
diplomats  of  Europe;  DeForest  inter- 
preted to  the  citizens  of  other  countries 
the  better  spirit  of  Japan. 

[ 224  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

Is  not  this  a man’s  work?  Consider 
the  obstacles  to  be  overcome.  There  is 
selfishness,  that  oldest  and  most  primi- 
tive of  human  impulses,  the  impulse  to 
take  all  one  can  get  and  to  keep  all  one 
has  got.  We  must  make  this  our  servant 
by  releasing  that  larger  self  which  is  latent 
in  every  man.  We  must  make  men  see 
that  what  Christ  wishes  is  not  slaves 
but  co-workers,  and  that  the  task  which 
we  offer  men  in  the  upbuilding  of  his 
Kingdom  is  one  in  which  each  man’s  tru- 
est self  will  find  its  deepest  satisfaction. 

There  is  habit,  the  inertia  of  the  mind 
which  is  content  with  things  as  they  are, 
and  resists  any  attempt  at  improvement. 
If  China  appeals  to  the  business  man  as 
a field  for  profitable  investment  because 
of  the  vastness  of  its  undeveloped  re- 
sources, how  much  more  to  the  Chris- 
tian ! What  human  resources  there  are 
here  waiting  to  be  turned  to  profitable 
uses  ! What  kindliness,  docility,  patience, 
[ 225  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

fortitude,  loyalty,  if  only  we  could  liber- 
ate their  possessors  from  the  ignorance 
which  now  fetters  them  and  open  to 
them  the  larger  opportunities  in  which 
we  ourselves  have  found  our  freedom. 

There  is  prejudice,  the  natural  disposi- 
tion in  each  country  to  think  its  own 
civilization  the  best  and  to  look  with 
suspicion  upon  influences  coming  from 
without.  What  infinite  tact  is  necessary 
to  deal  with  such  an  attitude,  what  clear 
discrimination  between  the  things  which 
are  transient  and  temporary  and  the 
things  which  are  eternal ! 

There  is  a form  of  missionary  activity 
more  common  in  the  past  than  to-day, 
which  awakens  just  resentment.  When 
one  comes  to  another  country  with  an 
assumption  of  superiority,  and  tries  to 
impose  upon  men  of  an  alien  civilization 
customs  and  ideals  with  which  their  own 
history  affords  no  point  of  contact,  it  is 
not  strange  that  resistance  should  be  en- 
[ 226  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

countered.  It  is  one  of  the  salutary  by- 
products of  the  war  that  it  will  make  it 
easier  for  us  to  resist  this  temptation  in 
the  future.  We  realize  to-day  what  we 
ought  to  have  known  before,  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  yet  as  a Christian  nation. 
There  are  nations  which  have  enjoyed 
the  benefits  of  the  gospel  longer  than 
others,  nations  which  have  been  longer 
under  the  tutelage  of  Christ  and  in 
which  more  individuals  have  benefited 
by  his  instruction;  but  there  is  no  single 
nation  which  is  not  still  missionary  ter- 
ritory, not  one  in  which  the  task  which 
the  foreign  missionary  faces  in  India  or 
in  Siam,  is  not  equally  faced  by  the  Chris- 
tian minister  at  home.  The  distinction 
between  home  and  foreign  is  a purely 
arbitrary  distinction.  It  is  a matter  of 
the  atlas  and  of  the  missionary  report. 
There  is  but  one  kind  of  missions,  and 
that  is  Christian  missions.  There  is  but 
one  field,  and  that  is  the  world. 

[ 227  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

It  is  only  when  we  interpret  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise  in  this  large  way  that 
we  can  measure  its  far-reaching  signifi- 
cance. It  is  not  the  concern  of  one  nation 
only  but  of  all  the  nations.  It  is  not  the 
concern  of  the  church  only,  but  of  all 
who  love  their  kind.  The  day  of  small 
enterprises  has  passed  never  to  return. 
Only  organization  can  meet  organization; 
only  by  working  together  for  the  cause 
of  humanity  in  time  of  peace  can  we  forge 
the  bonds  of  sympathy  and  of  confidence 
that  will  keep  us  one  when  the  strain  of 
war  comes. 

In  this  inspiring  task  of  co-operation 
and  reconstruction,  you  of  the  Japanese 
church  may  have  an  honorable  part  to 
play.  It  is  in  your  power  to  assist  in 
this  reorganization  of  the  Christian  forces 
by  giving  an  example  within  your  own 
country  of  an  effective  and  undivided 
Christianity.  We  who  inherit  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  Western  world  are  hampered 
in  our  attempts  to  come  together  by  many 
[ 228  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

obstacles  to  which  you  are  strangers. 
Here  on  this  new  soil  where  Christianity 
is  still  comparatively  young,  it  should 
be  possible  for  you  to  unite  all  Chris- 
tians in  the  consciousness  of  a common 
opportunity  and  a common  responsibility, 
and  give  your  fellow  Christians  who  are 
still  divided  the  example  of  a united  na- 
tional church. 

And  here  again  we  must  begin  at  home. 
If  Christians  cannot  come  together  in 
Tokyo  to  express  their  common  brother- 
hood in  Christ,  how  can  we  expect  them 
to  do  so  in  Japan  as  a whole?  If  they 
cannot  do  so  in  Japan  how  can  they  do 
so  in  the  world?  The  task  of  Christian 
co-operation,  important  enough  surely 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  local  com- 
munity, acquires  a commanding  impor- 
tance when  contemplated  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  world. 

And  so  we  come  back  to  the  place  at 
which  we  began,  the  responsibility  which 

[ 229  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

rests  upon  us  as  individuals  to  create  the 
spiritual  atmosphere  which  will  make 
possible  these  great  results.  Unless  we 
are  the  men  we  ought  to  be  we  shall  never 
have  the  church  we  need,  or  the  world 
for  which  we  long. 

How  shall  we  meet  this  responsibility  ? 
Whence  shall  we  gain  the  reinforcement 
of  power  we  need?  There  is  but  one 
source  which  is  adequate  to  the  demand, 
and  that  is  God. 

1 have  spoken  of  the  resources  at  our 
disposal  for  the  great  tasks  which  lie 
ahead;  the  capacity  which  the  war  has 
revealed  in  human  nature  for  heroic  loy- 
alty and  self -forgetting  sacrifice;  the 
longing  for  some  better  world  order  than 
the  present  system  of  rivalry  and  strife; 
but  after  all  the  most  important  fact  in 
the  case  still  remains  to  be  catalogued, 
and  that  is  the  living  God  Himself.  We 
are  not  obliged  to  work  out  the  world’s 
salvation  alone.  If  that  were  the  case 
[ 230  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 


we  might  well  despair.  God,  who  has 
created  in  us  these  capacities,  and  put 
into  our  hearts  these  longings,  is  Himself 
actively  at  work  in  the  world  to  accom- 
plish His  plan. 

Greatest  of  all  Christianity’s  contri- 
butions to  social  progress  is  faith  in  the 
living  God.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
ideal  of  human  brotherhood  as  such  in 
which  Christians  can  claim  exclusive 
proprietorship.  It  is  shared  by  all  who 
believe  in  internationalism  in  any  form. 
Whoever  is  restive  under  the  present  con- 
dition of  organized  selfishness,  miscalled 
civilization;  whoever  recognizes  a true 
community  of  interest  with  men  in  other 
countries  who  share  with  him  the  as- 
pirations of  a higher  and  more  generous 
life;  whoever  refuses  to  accept  the  ideals 
of  nationalism  and  of  imperialism  as  the 
final  word  for  humanity  and  in  spite  of 
present  discouragements  still  hopes  for 
the  reorganization  of  society  along  lines 
[ 231  5 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

expressive  of  the  common  interest,  what- 
ever form  that  reorganization  may  take; 
whoever,  in  short,  regards  mankind  as 
greater  than  any  of  its  parts  and  con- 
secrates his  life  to  its  service,  faces  in 
principle  the  same  issue  which  confronts 
Christians  to-day. 

It  is  one  of  the  compensations  of  the 
present  situation  that  it  has  shown  us 
how  many  such  people  there  are.  Chris- 
tians of  all  nations  honor  the  courage 
of  that  minority  of  Socialists  who  have 
dared  to  plead  the  cause  of  humanity 
under  the  most  imperialistic  of  all  the 
warring  governments,  and  they  in  turn 
when  they  wish  to  drive  home  their  pro- 
test in  the  most  convincing  way  borrow 
language  from  the  religion  which  they 
had  formerly  repudiated.  We  had  not 
thought  of  Vorwarts  as  a Christian  or- 
gan, but  these  are  the  words  which  it 
addressed  to  the  German  Government 
in  the  momentous  days  when  peace  and 
. [ 232  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

war  still  hung  in  the  balance:  “Let  us 
understand,  then,  that  we  are  not  merely 
Germans,  French,  or  Russians,  but  that 
we  are  all  men,  that  all  the  peoples  are 
of  the  same  blood,  and  that  they  have 
no  right  to  kill  one  another,  but  that  they 
ought  to  love  and  help  one  another. 
Such  is  Christianity,  humane  conduct. 
Man  does  not  belong  to  one  nation  only : 
he  belongs  to  humanity.”1 

But  while  in  its  main  lines  the  issue  is 
the  same  for  all,  it  comes  home  to  Chris- 
tians with  peculiar  force  because  of  their 
religious  interpretation  of  life.  To  us 
regard  for  other  men  is  not  simply  a mat- 
ter of  human  instinct,  still  less  of  prac- 
tical expediency,  but  of  religious  faith. 
Human  brotherhood  is  the  corollary  of 
divine  sonship,  and  the  task  of  organiz- 
ing the  world  according  to  the  principles 


1 This  editorial,  which  was  suppressed  by  the  Ger- 
man Government,  was  privately  circulated  and  is  re- 
printed in  The  Survey  of  August  21,  1915. 

[ 233  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

of  mutual  helpfulness  and  unselfish  ser- 
vice follows  necessarily  from  the  initial 
act  of  redemptive  love,  on  which  the  in- 
dividual bases  his  hope  of  personal  sal- 
vation. 

It  is  here,  I repeat,  in  this  faith  in 
the  Father  God  that  we  reach  the  su- 
preme contribution  of  Christianity  to 
the  cause  of  social  reconstruction.  We 
are  all  facing  a common  task,  but  we 
differ  in  our  estimate  of  the  resources  at 
our  disposal.  Where  some  see  only  the 
human  factors  in  the  case,  our  faith  dis- 
cerns God  at  work,  and  on  His  inexhaus- 
tible stores  of  wisdom  and  power  we  base 
our  hope  of  final  victory. 

For  it  is  faith,  after  all,  on  which  all 
turns,  faith  in  the  power  of  spirit  to  lift 
itself  above  the  flesh,  of  light  to  dispel 
darkness,  of  love  to  conquer  selfishness, 
of  the  future  to  emancipate  itself  from 
the  shackles  of  the  past.  Where  such 
faith  exists  all  things  are  possible.  With- 

[ 234  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

out  it  the  will  falters  and  effort  flags. 
Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish. 

Our  primary  business  as  Christians 
then  must  be  to  keep  alive  the  God  con- 
sciousness in  man.  We  have  seen  how 
this  consciousness  revives  in  time  of 
crisis,  but  why  need  we  wait  for  crisis  to 
discover  God?  God  is  as  near  and  as 
accessible  in  peace  as  in  war  if  we  have 
only  eyes  to  see  Him.  It  is  for  the 
church  to  furnish  this  vision.  Greatest 
of  all  its  tasks  and  most  weighty  of  its 
responsibilities  is  its  function  as  a school 
of  faith.  It  must  keep  ever  before  our 
eyes  the  struggle  for  righteousness  in 
which  we  are  always  engaged.  It  must 
remind  us  of  the  summons  to  service  that 
is  forever  sounding  in  our  ears.  It  must 
retell  to  the  rising  generations  the  story 
of  the  triumphs  which  have  already  been 
won  by  those  who  have  put  their  trust 
in  God  and  dared  to  take  risks  in  His 
service.  In  a word,  it  must  foster  that 
[ 235  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

attitude  of  expectancy  which  shall  make 
no  enterprise  seem  too  daring,  no  under- 
taking too  great. 

For  whom  should  this  attitude  be 
easier  than  for  us  modern  Christians? 
We  are  not  facing  unfamiliar  problems 
like  those  pioneers  of  faith  who  had  to 
venture  out  into  the  dark  with  no  ex- 
perience to  guide  them.  We  are  the 
latest  in  a long  line  of  experimenters  who 
have  put  Christ’s  promises  to  the  proof 
and  found  their  faith  justified  by  the 
event.  As  we  look  back  over  the  course 
of  history  we  see  days  that  looked  to 
those  who  lived  through  them  as  dark 
as  these  through  which  we  are  passing 
now,  but  we  see  also  the  light  of  the 
new  day  that  dawned  after  the  clouds 
had  rolled  away.  We  remember  Calvary 
with  its  dark  shadow,  but  we  remember 
Easter,  too,  and  we  thank  God  and  take 
courage. 

I have  come  recently  from  Panama, 

[ 236  ] 


WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CAN  DO 

where  it  was  my  privilege  to  study  the 
great  Canal  which  represents,  I suppose, 
the  supreme  limit  of  man’s  achievement 
in  the  struggle  against  nature.  One’s 
thought  goes  back  to  those  early  days 
when  the  French  engineers  began  their 
work.  We  wonder  at  the  faith  which 
made  them  believe  then  that  their  plan 
was  possible  in  the  face  of  all  the  doubters 
who  declared  that  it  was  impossible. 
But  we  do  not  fully  learn  the  lesson  of 
their  faith  until  we  realize  that  with  the 
data  then  at  their  command  the  doubters 
were  right.  If  there  were  no  resources 
available  but  those  De  Lesseps  possessed 
when  he  began  to  dig,  the  task  was  im- 
possible. And  yet  the  canal  has  been 
dug.  Why  P Because  there  were  un- 
discovered resources  still  uncatalogued. 
In  his  arsenal  of  nature  God  holds  in  re- 
serve new  powers  which  are  only  gradu- 
ally released,  as  science  discovers  one  by 
one  the  keys  which  unlock  the  closed 
[ 237  ] 


IS  CHRISTIANITY  PRACTICABLE? 

doors.  And  it  is  these  new  powers,  an- 
ticipated by  faith  before  science  can  gain 
access  to  them,  to  which  the  future  be- 
longs. 

It  is  so  in  our  task  of  spiritual  recon- 
struction. In  religion  as  in  science  the 
present  can  never  be  the  measure  of  the 
future.  If  we  were  shut  up  to  the  re- 
sources which  we  now  possess  we  should 
fail.  But  God  has  other  workers  still  to 
enlist,  and  new  powers  still  to  release, 
and  these  in  time— if  we  but  do  our  part 
— will  make  accomplishment  certain,  and 
usher  in  the  new  social  order  for  which 
the  world  still  waits. 


[ 238  ] 


INDEX 


Absolute  ideal,  178. 

Adam,  217. 

Africa,  177. 

Agag,  218. 

Ai,  218. 

Almsgiving,  162. 

America,  166,  207,  221,  224. 
American  character,  idealism 
of,  222. 

Amos,  63. 

Apologetic,  208. 

Arbitration,  154,  156,  194. 
application  of,  in  labor  dis- 
putes, 154. 

Armenians,  177. 

Assyria,  55,  102,  103. 
Assyrians,  66. 

Augustine,  37. 

Confessions  of,  37. 
Australia,  165. 

Austria,  6,  60,  132. 

Battin,  Professor,  203. 
Belgium,  60,  103,  104,  176, 
204,  208. 

compensation  to,  79,  80. 
Bemhardi,  57,  185. 

Bible,  27,  61,  66,  69,  217. 
Boston  Evening  Transcript, 

116. 

Brotherhood  of  man,  19,  45, 
46,  81,  204,  205. 
contribution  of  Christian- 
ity to,  206. 

Bulgarian  massacres,  177. 


Calvary,  73,  236. 

Canaan,  55. 

Canada,  98,  165. 

Cavour,  143. 

Chancellor  of  Germany- 
119. 

Charity,  160,  161,  162. 

China,  151,  168,  207,  224. 
Japanese  attitude  toward, 
168-170. 

Christ,  21,  25,  74,  76,  77, 106, 
113,  142,  175,  213,  219, 
227. 

second  coming  of,  25. 
incarnation  of,  74. 
cross,  typical  character  of, 
77. 

Spirit  of,  219. 

Christ  in  Flanders,  86. 
Christian  faith,  3. 
conscience,  4. 
attitude  toward  war,  5. 
religion,  a record  of  growth, 
33. 

claim,  tests  of,  49. 
ideal,  51. 

method,  practicability  of, 

122. 

unity,  229. 

Christian  Work,  203,  210. 
Christianity,  individualistic 
conception  of,  4. 
practicability  of,  two  senses 
of  the  question,  12; 
from  the  point  of  view 


[ 239  ] 


INDEX 


of  the  individual,  13; 
of  society  11-22,  38. 
principles  which  deter- 
mine, 34-47. 
attempts  to  evade  issue, 
24-29. 

premillenarian  at- 
tempt, 24  sq. 
mystic  attempt,  28  sq. 
social  interpretation  of,  16, 
42. 

chief  tenets  of,  17,  18. 
internationalism  of,  19. 
organized,  22. 
as  a religion  of  individual 
salvation,  24,  32. 
a militant  religion,  36. 
place  of  struggle  in,  37. 
influence  of,  upon  charac- 
ter, 37. 

outside  the  church,  40. 
spirit  of,  40. 

not  to  be  measured  by 
its  institutions,  40. 
alternatives  to,  42,  44. 
not  an  ascetic  religion,  62. 

Christmas,  208. 

Christmas  letter  of  English 
women,  132. 

Church,  failure  of,  3. 
lack  of  definite  construc- 
tive programme,  5,  7, 
40,  41,  77. 

abnegation  of  leadership  of, 
by,  22,  41. 

as  an  institution,  106. 
what  it  can  do,  191  sq. 
international  character  of, 
192. 

opportunity  of,  193. 


failure  of,  in  the  past,  193. 
reasons  for  this,  193,  194. 
function  of,  as  a reminder  of 
unity  already  attained, 
196  sq. 

a missionary  society,  214, 
215. 

function  of,  to  foster  faith 
in  God,  235. 

Compromise,  place  of,  in  re- 
ligion, 38,  39,  178. 
acceptance  of,  by  pacifists, 
179. 

Concert  of  Europe,  52. 

Conference  of  faith  and  or- 
der, 4. 

Congress,  161. 

Constance,  197,  213. 

Peace  Conference  at,  197. 

Constantinople,  205. 

Conversion,  142. 

Cramb,  127. 

Crisis,  magnitude  of  present, 
23. 

significance  of,  as  test  and 
teacher,  33. 

Cross,  73. 

importance  of,  for  Christi- 
anity, 73. 

isolation  of,  from  other  hu- 
man experience,  74. 
social  meaning  of,  74. 
divine  significance  of,  83. 
the  revelation  of  God’s 
heart,  83. 


DeForest,  224. 

De  Lesseps,  237. 
Dependent  peoples,  167. 


[ 240  ] 


INDEX 


Diagnosis,  Christian,  of  pres- 
ent situation,  49  sq. 
Diplomacy,  43,  50. 

philosophy  of  present,  43. 
Duty  for  to-morrow,  141  sq. 

East,  peoples  of,  43. 

Easter,  236. 

Edinburgh  Conference,  4. 
Education,  145. 
for  humanity,  37,  131. 
use  of,  in  the  interests  of 
war,  125,  126. 

Egypt,  55,  56,  102,  103. 

Eiche,  Die,  203. 

Employers,  155. 

England,  6,  29, 104,  120,  129, 
165,  189. 

English  White  Book,  52. 
Environment,  147. 

Europe,  29,  207. 
history  of,  51. 

European  countries  50,  51, 
52. 

Evangelists,  great,  method  of, 
92. 

Exploitation,  168, 169, 174. 
Ezekiel,  70. 

Faith,  its  nature  and  validity, 
3. 

reinforcement  of,  wrought 
by  the  war,  84. 
in  God  revived  in  time  of 
trouble,  88. 

in  God  based  upon  experi- 
ence rather  than  logic, 
89. 

function  of,  112,  123. 


Fatherhood  of  God,  18,  19, 
234. 

Feeling,  function  of,  in  so- 
ciety, 165. 

Florence  Nightingale,  143. 
Foreign  missionary  enter- 
prise, 202. 

Foreign  missions,  220. 
true  significance  of,  221. 
social  significance  of,  223. 
contrast  between  older  and 
newer  ideals,  223,  224. 
obstacles  to,  225  sq. 
Forgiveness  of  sins,  21,  79. 
France,  52,  58,  60,  78,  165, 
176,  184,  203,  204. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  143. 

French  priests,  85. 

Friends,  English,  203. 

Garibaldi,  143. 

German  chancellor,  119. 
German  peace  movement, 
203. 

Germany,  6,  52,  78,  85,  98, 
104,  116,  132,  176,  187, 
197,  198,  203,  204. 
national  sin  of,  188. 
Gladden,  187. 

God,  moral  government  of,  2, 
63,  69. 

Kingdom  of,  10,  19,  45,  57. 
mystic  view  of,  28. 
fatherhood  of,  30,  46,  59. 
Lord  of  all,  57. 
control  of  history,  58. 
purpose  in  history,  61  sq. 
69,  81. 

solidarity  with  man,  81. 
immanent,  82. 


[ 241  ] 


INDEX 


transcendent,  82. 
faith  in,  revived  in  time  of 
trouble,  88,  231. 
faith  in,  based  upon  experi- 
ence rather  than  logic, 
89,  90. 

differences  in  conception  of, 
216. 

the  ultimate  source  of 
power,  230. 

God  consciousness,  235. 

Good  government  clubs,  157. 
Good-will,  203. 

Greek,  19. 

Grey,  Lord,  52. 

Guilt,  173. 

Hague  Court,  195. 
Hangchow,  151. 

Hebrews,  religion  of,  55. 
History,  God’s  training- 
school,  45. 

Christian  interpretation  of, 
48-96. 

Human  brotherhood,  221, 
233. 

Ideal,  power  of,  137. 

lack  of  an  adequate,  184. 
Idealism,  136. 

Ideals  of  peace,  11. 

Ignatius  Loyola,  143. 
Immigration  acts,  164, 166. 
Immortality,  56,  92. 
experimental  basis  for  our 
faith  in,  93. 

reinforced  by  the  war,  93. 
Imperialism,  218,  219. 
English,  189. 


India,  224. 

Individual,  significance  of, 
142. 

Individualism,  148. 

inadequacy  of,  149. 
Individualistic  agencies,  6. 
Individualistic  religion,  argu- 
ments against,  31. 

Inland  Sea,  150. 

Inquisition,  218. 
International  brotherhood, 
136. 

Internationalism,  181. 

bankruptcy  of,  7. 

Isaiah,  58,  102. 

Israel,  55,  63,  66,  80,  82,  102, 
103. 

Issue  raised  by  the  war,  11. 
Italy,  143,  177. 


James,  Professor,  184. 

Jane,  Mr.,  116. 

Japan,  116,  128,  150,  166, 
168,  207,  224,  229. 
Japanese  church,  function  of, 
228. 

Japanese  people,  alternative 
before,  189,  190. 
Jehovah,  55,  63,  217. 
Jeremiah,  58,  70. 

Jerusalem,  the  new,  62. 
Jesus,  30,  46,  100,  143. 

Jesus’  method,  91. 

Jesus  Christ,  56,  62,  95. 

Kingdom  of,  62. 

Job,  70. 

Joshua,  218. 

Julius  Csesar,  121. 

Justice,  163,  165. 


[ 242  ] 


INDEX 


Kaiser,  213. 

Kim,  32. 

Kingdom  of  God,  69,  100, 
134,  159,  179,  180,  184, 
213,  214,  225. 
extent  of,  101. 
nature  of,  105. 
means  of  its  realization, 
107. 

Kipling,  32. 

Knipp,  182. 

Labour  Leader,  133. 

Lahusen,  Dr.,  198. 

Lane,  Mr.,  221. 

Latimer,  77. 

League  of  International 
Friendship,  203. 

League  of  Nations,  192. 
Letter  of  German  Christians, 
199. 

Life  after  death,  26. 

Lincoln,  177. 

Lissauer,  198. 

Luther,  37,  143. 

Martin,  224. 

Martyrs,  79. 

Mary,  210. 

Materialism,  109. 

as  a philosophic  theory,  110. 
as  a mode  of  life,  110. 
Mazzini,  143,  177. 

Messiah,  63. 

Method  of  God,  redemptive 
love,  71. 

Mexico,  172. 

duty  of  United  States  to, 
172,  173. 

Militarism,  114, 117, 181. 


Military  service,  universal, 
127. 

Missions,  Christian,  215;  ef- 
fect of  war  upon,  207. 
unity  of,  227. 

Mohammedan  slave-traders, 
177. 

Monasticism,  143. 

Moral  government  of  God,  2. 

challenge  of  God’s,  70. 
Moral  reserves  of  humanity, 
137. 

Mott,  Dr.,  203. 

Munich,  132. 

Mysticism,  9. 
anti-social  character  of,  28. 
meaning  of,  28. 
relation  of  to  Christianity, 
30. 

Napoleon,  121. 

Nation,  Christian  view  of  its 
claim  upon  the  citizen’s 
allegiance,  159. 

National  selfishness  a cause  of 
war,  51. 

Nationalism,  109, 113. 

its  rejection  of  Christian 
end,  113. 

anti-Christian  character  of, 
114,  115. 

Neutral  nations,  44. 

New  Testament,  36. 

New  York  City,  156. 

New  Zealand,  165. 

Nietzsche,  72, 95, 185, 186, 188. 

Odin,  217. 

Official  papers,  65. 

Old  Testament,  58,  218. 


[ 243  ] 


INDEX 


Optimism,  11,  57. 
Organization,  need  of  an  in- 
ternational, 191. 

Osaka,  150. 

Pacifism,  175. 
contemporary,  54. 
arguments  for,  175. 
difficulties  in,  176. 
limitations  of,  180. 
Pacifists,  courage  of,  179. 
Palace  of  The  Hague,  6. 
Palestine,  60. 

Panama,  236. 

“ Papers  for  War  Time,”  198. 
Patriotism,  160. 

distinguished  from  nation- 
alism, 113,  114. 

Paul,  77. 

Paul’s  method,  91. 

Peace,  permanent,  its  nature, 
98. 

evidences  of  love  of,  118. 
Peace  movement,  202. 

Persia,  55. 

Philosophy  of  history,  69. 
Philistia,  56. 

Pittsburgh,  150. 

Plan  of  God,  social  nature  of, 
71. 

Poland,  58,  85. 

Popes,  militant,  218. 
Practicability  of  Christianity, 
rejection  of,  by  many 
thoughtful  people,  16. 
Prayer,  spirit  of,  in  the 
trenches,  85. 
Premillenarianism,  9,  24. 
explanation  of,  25,  26. 
reason  for  rejecting,  27. 


Preparedness,  181. 
need  of  a new  concept  of, 
182. 

need  of  Christian,  185. 
Programme,  rivals  of  the 
Christian,  109  sq. 
the  Christian,  for  human- 
ity, 97-140. 

Progress,  178. 

Prophet  of  the  Exile,  72. 
Prophets  of  Israel,  54,  63. 
Protestantism,  143. 
Providence,  56,  61. 

Public  opinion,  142. 
Puritanism,  218. 

Purpose,  the  divine,  84. 

Race,  20. 

Reason,  function  of,  in  pro- 
ducing faith,  89. 
Reconstruction,  8. 
Redemption  through  Christ, 
21. 

Reichstag,  119. 

Religion,  inexhaustible  vital- 
ity of,  46. 

Repentance,  173. 

Resources  available  for  the 
Christian  cause,  131. 
Responsibility,  question  of 
ultimate,  67. 

Ridley,  77. 

Roberts,  Lord,  127. 

Rome,  60. 

Russia,  6,  52,  165,  203. 
Russians,  85. 

Salvation,  56,  219. 

Samaritan,  171. 

Saul,  218. 


[ 244  ] 


INDEX 


Savage  races,  167. 

Science,  147. 

failure  to  remain  objective, 
7. 

Christian  attitude  toward, 
107. 

limitations  of.  111. 
Self-development,  159. 
Self-interest  the  governing 
principle  of  diplomacy, 
50. 

Self-sacrifice,  135. 

Sin,  211. 

Christian  attitude  to,  212. 
forgiveness  of,  212. 
revival  of  consciousness  of, 
65. 

nature  of,  in  unbrotherli- 
ness,  66. 
national,  66. 

Social  gospel,  47. 

Social  ideal,  26,  56. 

Social  message  of  Christian- 
ity, 32. 

Social  question,  Christian  in- 
terest in,  147. 

Social  service,  160. 

Social  system,  unchristian 
character  of  the  present, 
153. 

Social  validity  of  Christian- 
ity, importance  of  ques- 
tion, 8. 

Socialism,  194. 

failure  of,  6. 

Socialists,  232. 

German,  132. 

English,  133. 

Society,  modem  conception 
of,  146. 


Solidarity,  human,  75. 
in  sin,  76. 

in  salvation,  76,  78. 

Spirit  of  God,  92,  96. 

State,  non-Christian  charac- 
ter of,  20. 

ultimate  unity  of,  20. 
Christian  view  of  duty  to, 
33. 

Student  movement,  202,  203. 
Suffering,  Christian  attitude 
toward,  63. 

not  inconsistent  with  love, 
64. 

meaning  of,  71. 
not  all  due  to  sin,  64. 
of  the  innocent,  70,  71,  73. 
mystery  of,  70. 

Sumter,  177. 

Superman,  95. 

Survey,  The,  221,  233, 

Syria,  56. 

Tammany  Hall,  156,  157. 
Tariffs,  164,  166. 

Temple,  Dr.,  198. 

Theodicy,  73. 

the  complete  Christian,  84. 
Theology,  17. 

Thor,  217. 

Times,  London,  120. 

Tokyo,  229. 

Treitschke,  127,  185. 

Turkey,  176. 

Tyrol,  184. 

Unbrotherliness,  66. 

United  States, 98, 1 1 6, 128, 189. 

naval  policy  of,  116. 

Unity,  3. 


[ 245  ] 


INDEX 


Value  of  human  life,  94. 
Vicarious  suffering,  71. 
Vmwdrts,  232. 

War,  challenge  of,  to  Chris- 
tian faith,  1-12,  33,  34. 
the  denial  of  brotherhood, 
8. 

first  effect  of,  9. 
attitude  of  religious  men 
toward,  10. 

effect  of,  on  faith  in  God,  14. 
effect  of,  on  belief  in  immor- 
tality, 14,  15. 

the  affirmation  of  the  su- 
premacy of  self-inter- 
est, 15. 

the  denial  of  Christianity, 
16. 

remoter  causes  of,  51. 
God’s  method  of  discipline, 

54. 


Christian  interpretation  of, 
54. 

underlying  causes  of,  53. 
brutalizing  effect  of,  87. 
a symptom,  99. 
true  remedy  for,  100. 
of  peoples,  145. 
unable  to  settle  anything 
finally,  178. 

appeal  of,  to  the  strong,  219. 
Washburn,  224. 

Washington,  177. 

Western  civilization  not 
Christian,  207. 

White  Book,  English,  52. 
Women’s  Peace  Party,  132. 
World  citizenship,  absence  of 
consciousness  of,  23. 

Yellow  Sea,  168. 

Zion,  59. 


[ 246  ] 


Date  Due 


Mv  5 

My  6 

» 

Vi  1 2 

f) 

1 

